Bassist Heshima Mark Williams leads our 3rd Saturday dates.  He’s a San Francisco native whose playing springs from thirty years’ experience of the Bay Area’s rich musical heritage.  Heshima studied under the tutelage of the first African-American classical bassist in the Boston Symphony, Dr. Ortiz Walton.  He has toured with trombonist Julian Priester; trumpeter Eddie Henderson; saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons and Idris Ackamoor (as a member of The Pyramids); vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson; and pianist Jeff Chimenti.  And he has recorded on albums by Julian Priester and Bobby Hutcherson, as well as Japanese pianist Saya Saitol, jazz blues vocalist Lady Memphis and jump blues vocalist Lavay Smith; The Pyramids; saxophonist Robert Stewart; and guitarist Calvin Keyes, among others.  Along the way, Heshima has also performed with countless Bay Area jazz artists, including violinist India Cook, vibraphonist Yancey Taylor, and harpist Destiny Mohammed.

Gaea Schell performs regularly around the Bay Area, sharing the bandstand with the top jazz musicians working the local scene.