Bios

Steve Burkholder, drums Steve has been playing drums since he could hold sticks. The initial sparks that lit the fire for him were Rush, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Frank Zappa. Hearing Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew for the first time changed him forever and led him down the road to the study and performance of jazz and improvised music. He has a degree in percussion performance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with an emphasis in jazz percussion. He is a journeyman musician that has played in many different classical, jazz, rock, and freely improvised creative settings. He has been playing music in and around Chicago for the past several years and met Scott Coletta at Northern Illinois University in 2005 where their first trio together was formed.

Scott Coletta, piano Scott immersed himself in music at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana, learning advanced classical piano repertoire and music theory and later finding his way to what would become his passion, jazz piano. He studied advanced harmony and improvisation with Frank Puzzullo, associate professor of jazz at Ball State. He was a member of the top University Jazz Ensemble and performing regularly, including frequently filling in for his teacher around Muncie. After graduating from Ball State, Scott moved on to moved to Dekalb, Illinois to earn a master’s degree in Jazz Pedagogy at Northern Illinois University. At NIU, he had the privilege of studying with the great Willie Pickens. Scott is also an accomplished teacher and offers excellent instruction at reasonable prices. Learn more about Scott's teaching methods and availability >

Wesley Morgan, bass Wesley grew up in Kansas and took an interest in music at an early age. After trying several different instruments, he was drawn to the electric bass and the upright bass shortly after. Starting with rock and funk, he later became fascinated by the improvisational aspect of jazz. During his high school years, Wesley played in a variety of rock bands around the Wichita area. Upon graduating in the spring of 2004 he moved to Memphis, TN in order to work towards a Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis on recording technology at the University of Memphis. He spent the bulk of his time studying upright bass with jazz bassist Tim Goodwin and graduated in 2008. He currently works as a freelance musician and will complete the Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University in 2015. Wesley enjoys many different styles of music, and as a result has performed with a large number of groups spanning a variety of genres. He feels that as long as the music is written with passion, the labels attached to the music should not stifle his own will to support the artist’s work in the best way possible. Visit Wes's website to take lessons or hire him for a project >