Adam Shead, drums Matt Piet, piano Tony Piazza, bass
Adam Shead, who holds a BM in Percussion Performance from Columbia College Chicago, a Graduate Certificate in World Performance Studies, and MM in Improvisation from The University of Michigan specializes in interdisciplinary performance, composition, and improvisation. Adam has performed at renowned music festivals such as The Chicago Jazz Festival, Edgefest, and The Present is Present Festival in Amsterdam. Adam has performed alongside such musicians as Mary Oliver, Andrew Drury, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Steve Swell, Tim Daisy, Josh Berman, Dave Rempis, Benny Green, and John Hollenbeck. He is the founder of such groups as Dikeman/Stadhouders/Piazza/Shead, The Adiaphora Orchestra, Dod Kalm, CIME, Adam Shead Octet, and Adam Shead String Quartet and currently works as performance curator at Slate Arts and Performance in Chicago.
Matt Piet is an improvising pianist, composer, and music director. Born and raised in suburban Chicago, he began his studies as a pianist and vocalist at age ten, and was a proficient classical pianist and accompanist by his early teens. Piet set aside his classical studies to focus on jazz, improvisation, and composition during his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, returning to Chicago in 2014. In addition to playing many ad hoc improvised performances as a leader and a sideman, he has three working trios: Four Letter Words, Matt Piet Trio, and the trio Rempis/Piet/Daisy. In 2018 he released two highly praised recordings on Clean Feed Records and Astral Spirits Records, with a new release, City in A Garden that has just been released on ears&eyes Records.
Bassist Tony Piazza holds a BA in Jazz Studies from Columbia College Chicago and is longtime collaborator with Shead, performing alongside him at the Chicago Jazz Festival as well as in such groups as Dod Kalm, the Columbia Improvised Music Ensemble, the Adam Shead String Quartet, and Dikeman/Stadhouders/Piazza/Shead. He has also performed alongside such musicians as Josh Berman, Dustin Laurenzi, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouders, Dave Rempis, Benny Green, Dave Douglas, and Mykelle Deville.