It’s hard to overstate Taylor’s contributions to improvised music over the past three decades. A composer, scholar and educator as well as a capaciously inventive percussionist now living in Philadelphia, Taylor is probably best known as co-founder of the Chicago Underground Duo with trumpeter Rob Mazurek (and the numerous Underground iterations that have spun off of that original partnership). A professional on the Chicago scene from the age of 16, he became a rhythmic muse for many of the most celebrated artists in improvised music, including Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, Ken Vandermark, Darius Jones, James Brandon Lewis, Jaimie Branch, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, and Peter Brötzmann. He’s also led numerous acclaimed ensembles of his own, though never a trio quite like the one documented on The Daily Biological.

Eclectic guitarist Marc Ribot has recorded a wide variety of music over his career, working with Elvis Costello and on Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs. He has also recorded compositions for classical guitar by Haiti’s Franz Casseus, a friend of his parents, and has participated actively in New York City’s downtown avant-garde music scene for some time, most notably as a member of the Lounge Lizards. Ribot’s solo albums include Rootless Cosmopolitans and Requiem for What’s His Name; later Ribot worked with his avant-garde jazz/rock fusion band, Shrek, whose eponymous debut was released in 1994. With a new group, he also issued Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos in 1998; Muy Divertido followed two years later. Additionally, Ribot played a major part in initiating the Radical New Jewish Culture Festival in Germany and New York City.

New York native, keyboardist Greg Lewis, a highly accomplished mainstay on the city’s jazz, blues and funk scenes, who has earned a solid reputation for his versatile work around town in a vast variety of settings, steps out front for the first time on his debut CD Organ Monk. Lewis’ sensitive and soulful keyboard playing has made him a favorite among some of the music’s finest vocalists – including blues queen Sweet Georgia Brown, jazz and soul songstress, Lezlie Harrison and ex-Brooklyn Funk Essentials singer / songwriter Stephanie McKay — and earned him a featured role on saxophonist Sam Newsome’s Groove Project recording 24/7. Now on Organ Monk the spotlight is finally shined on his enormous talents as the leader of his own all-star trio featuring multitalented guitarist Ron Jackson and drummer extraordinaire Cindy Blackman.