Pete Smith: Guitar
Pete Smith is a New York City-based guitarist who performs in a wide range of musical settings. As a founding member of Grupo los Santos, a vanguard Afro-Cuban and Brazilian-style quartet, he has played New York’s Town Hall and concerts throughout the U.S., Cuba & Austria.
With Hazmat Modine he has performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival, as well as concerts in thirty countries throughout Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia.
He has performed in Nairobi and throughout Europe with Tin Pan. He has worked with Norah Jones, trumpeter Donald Byrd, Cuban trombone master Juan Pablo Torres, Andrew Hill, Kat Edmonson, Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, the Moonlighters, Madeline Peyroux, Natalie Merchant and Huun-Huur-Tu, and was recently a member of Michael Feinstein’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
David Ambrosio: Bass, Batá Drums
For the past 25 years, David Ambrosio has been one of New York City’s finest freelance musicians and educators. His current working projects as a leader are CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Blue Note Records in the Progressive ‘60s, featuring Grammy nominated saxophonist Donny McCaslin and drumming legend Victor Lewis; the David Ambrosio Quartet featuring the powerful tenor/trumpet front line of Tim Hagans and Joel Frahm; and the David Ambrosio Trio, featuring saxophonist Loren Stillman.In addition to his own ensembles, he is the co-leader of the David Ambrosio/Russ Meissner Sextet, 40Twenty, and Grupo Los Santos, as well as being a part of many other groups including George Schuller’s Circle Wide, the Matt Renzi Trio, Eri Yamamoto Trio, and the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra led by Jim McNeely. He has performed with such jazz greats as Kenny Werner, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco, George Garzone, Joseph Jarmon, and Ralph Alessi.David’s third recording as leader, Four on the Road (Fresh Sound Records, 2018), was praised as “Swinging brilliance in the light of interactive engagement, creating music that challenges while remaining largely accessible” by Dan Bilawsky of All About Jazz.With degrees in classical composition and jazz performance, David has a broad musical palate that has become even more intensified by his extensive travel experiences. In 2001 he had the opportunity to perform in Cuba with Grupo Los Santos, Max Pollack’s Rumbatap, as well as numerous local Afro/Cuban folkloric music and dance ensembles. Not long after, he began what has become an 14-year period of intense study of Afro/Cuban Bata drumming with master drummers Miguel Bernal, Carlos Gomez, and Carlos Aldama. David has also frequently toured in Central and South East Asia on behalf of the US State Department as a performer and clinician. Currently he is on the faculty at Hunter College and the New York Jazz Workshop in NYC
Max Pollak: Tap Dance/Body Percussion
Max Pollak uses three instruments for his ground-breaking performances. He creates dance with his body, music with his hands and feet, and song with his voice. He takes his ground-breaking, unconventional approach to performing arts across multiple cultures. As a native Austrian, the wide-range Yodel is built-in.
Pollak is recognized worldwide as the first person to merge percussive dance and singing with Afro-Cuban body percussion grooves. This new style inspired the creation of his band RumbaTap, which has performed in the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Cuba, Turkey, France, Germany, Austria, and Finland. Pollak also breaks into the resurgence of contemporary classical and Austrian folklore music (aka New Austrian Sound of Music).
As an award-winning choreographer, educator, composer, and cultural consultant, Pollak is also co-creator of the off-Broadway hit show Carmen, to Havana and Back. His CD RumbaTap was released in 2015. The innovative work of Max Pollak redefines the world of dance, music, and song within a multi-cultural approach using humankind’s original instrument – the body.
William “Beaver” Bausch: Drums
William “Beaver” Bausch is a drummer, composer, and educator. He has played with Donald Byrd, Juan Pablo Torres, the Boys Choir of Harlem, the Mambo All-Stars, Pablo Menéndez y Mezcla, and Hazmat Modine. He has recorded with Harvie S, Phil Bowler, Kaori Fujii, Ben Lapidus & Sonido Isleño, Mark Miller, Paul Carlon, and others.
He founded Grupo los Santos after his first trip to Cuba in 1998. They have been featured in several documentaries (Latido Latino and Como se forma una rumba) and performed at NYC’s Town Hall and the Jazz Standard, as well as in Europe and Cuba. They have released four albums so far.
In addition to his continued work with Santos, Beaver is focused on co-writing and production with longtime collaborator vocalist Lamont O’Neil.
He also taught in NYC public schools for 26 years, and got to work with a ton of amazing kids.