Markus Burger (born September 30, 1966) is a German pianist, composer and music educator currently residing in Santa Monica, California, who teaches at Los Angeles City College and Fullerton College in Los Angeles. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz, New Age, chamber and film.
His music has been performed in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, and most recently in the United States. He began studying piano at age six and later earned his Diplom in Performing Arts from the Essen Folkwang Hochschule in Germany, a B.A. in piano and Composition from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands and a Certification in Popular Music from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He studied with Peter Walter, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler and Kenny Werner.
He has released eight albums, featuring his own compositions and arrangements, among them, his two most recent releases, Genesis and Tertia. His CD Genesis, an avant-garde jazz collaboration with renowned drummer Matt Marucci, has received raving reviews from jazz critics in the United States while his latest Spiritual Standards project Tertia, with Berlin-based saxophonist Jan Von Klewitz, made its debut during a nationally televised performance in Germany on New Year's Day, 2005. His second album, The Smile of the Honeycake Horse, with his quartet Septer Bourbon, received wide acclaim from the European press and Down Beat Magazine in the United States and achieved something of a “cult following” in Germany. His Spiritual Standards project, a collection of contemporary jazz improvisations of Johann Sebastian Bach’s greatest chorals and masterpieces, was performed at sold out venues in Germany, Poland, Italy and the United States, later moving to the top 20 in the German Jazz charts in 1999.
In developing his signature sound over the years, Burger drew his influences from a wide range of musical styles including J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Sting.

Peter Erskine has played the drums since the age of four and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on 700 albums and film scores, and has won two Grammy Awards, plus an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music (1992). Fifty albums have been released under his own name or as co-leader. He has played with the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson Big Bands, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Kenny Wheeler, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny and Gary Burton, John Scofield, et al, and has appeared as a soloist with the London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Frankfurt Radio, Scottish Chamber, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony, Oslo and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Peter premièred the double percussion concerto Fractured Lines, composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the BBC Proms with Andrew Davis conducting, and has collaborated frequently with Sir Simon Rattle. He also premiered the Turnage opera "Anna Nicole" at the Royal Opera House in London. Turnage has composed a solo concerto for Peter titled "Erskine," which received its world premiere in Bonn, Germany in 2013, with a US premiere at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic. Peter has been voted 'Best Jazz Drummer of the Year' ten times by the readers of Modern Drummer magazine and was elected into the magazine's Hall of Fame in 2017. The Percussive Arts Society will be inducting Peter into its Hall of Fame at the November 2022 PASIC conference ins Indianapolis. Peter graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and studied at Indiana University under George Gaber. In 1972 Peter commenced his pro career playing with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Four years later, he joined Maynard Ferguson before working with Jaco Pastorius in Weather Report and moving to Los Angeles. Peter recorded five albums with the band. He won his first Grammy Award with their album '8.30'. During this time in LA, he also worked with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Farrell and George Cables. Peter then moved to New York City where he worked for five years with such musicians as Michael Brecker, Mike Mainieri, Eddie Gomez and Eliane Elias in Steps Ahead, John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Marc Johnson in the legendary group Bass Desires, the John Abercrombie Trio plus Bob Mintzer's Big Band. Peter has lived in LA since 1987 but has been traveling around the world all of that time, working with such artists as Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell, Vince Mendoza, Steely Dan, plus European musicians Jan Garbarek, Kenny Wheeler, Palle Danielsson, John Taylor, Kate Bush, Nguyen Lê, Rita Marcotulli, the Norrbotten Big Band in Sweden plus Sadao Watanabe in Japan. He won his second Grammy Award as the drummer of the WDR big band in Köln along with Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Vince Mendoza and others for the "Some Skunk Funk" album. Meanwhile, Peter keeps busy in on the road and in LA with such artists as Seth MacFarlane, Patrick Williams, plus John Beasley, Bob Sheppard and Benjamin Shepherd (all 3 musicians members of his Dr. Um Band), as well as playing in the studios. Films where Peter's drumming can be heard include "Memoirs of a Geisha," all three of the Austin Powers movies, "The Secret Life of Pets," plus the title music of the Steven Spielberg/John Williams collaboration, "The Adventures of Tintin." He also played on the Academy Award-winning soundtrack for "La La Land," and can be heard drumming on "The Orville," "Let Them All Talk," "Mank" and "Babylon." Peter produces jazz recordings for his record label, Fuzzy Music, with 4 Grammy nominations to its credit. Peter is also the author of several books including "No Beethoven (Autobiography & Chronicle of Weather Report)," "Time Awareness for All Musicians" and his latest book (co-authored with Dave Black for Alfred Publishing), "The Musician's Lifeline." "The Drum Perspective" will enjoy a re-release including added content in late 2022. Peter has also authored a series of iOS Play-Along apps suitable for all instruments. Peter is Professor of Practice and Director of Drumset Studies at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. Peter plays Tama Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks, Remo Drum Heads, Meinl Percussion, and uses Shure Microphones and Zoom digital recording devices.

Jan von Klewitz ( born March 7, 1964 in Zagreb ) is a German jazz saxophonist.
From Klewitz spent part of his childhood in Copenhagen, where he received his first piano lessons. From 1972, he lived with his family in Berlin, where he only got clarinet and later saxophone lessons from 1976th After high school studied at the Cologne University of Music and was a member of Youth Jazz Orchestra Rheinland-Pfalz, with whom he went on several tours abroad (USA, Malta). During his studies he worked with Gene Mighty Flea Connors, Ulla Oster Beyond Janis, the band Heinz, Georg Ruby, Dieter Manderscheid and Reinhard Kobialka. He was also involved in several albums of productions JazzHausMusik. In 1991 he moved back to Berlin, where he founded his own quartet with Wolfgang Köhler, Henning Sieverts and Bill Elgart. He became a member of the German-French Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Albert Mangelsdorff and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Aki Takase and Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky. He also played in a double quartet Double Dose with Conny and Matthias Bauer and the quartet Gossip and Heinz Sauer. At this time played Klewitz addition to numerous film music productions with Wolfgang Dauner, Stefan Lotter man, John Schroeder, Steve Argüelles, Rudi Neuwirth, Michel Godard, Bob Degen and Christopher Dell. He went on numerous national and international festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Jazz Baltica or the International Burghausen Jazz Week and was for the Goethe-Institut with the band Yakou Tribe on Africa tour. In 2007 he played with Christian von Kaphengsts Quartet Cafe Du Sport in India and Pakistan. For the existing since 1999 Quartet Yakou Tribe [1] (with Kai Brückner (g), Johannes Gunkel (b), and Rainer Winch (d)), he also composes his own pieces. Together with pianist Markus Burger he has presented a series of now four CDs with spiritual standards, which make use of both and European hymns. He also plays in the Wülker Group in Jazz Indeed with Michael Schiefel as a singer and with Thärichens Tentett headed by Nicolai Thärichen. Jan von Klewitz is the brother of Anti von Klewitz.