Taku Hirano is one of the most in-demand percussionists of his generation — a musical  chameleon onstage and in-studio, whether supporting iconic artists or fronting his own projects.  He has worked with everyone from Stevie Nicks to Stevie Wonder, Dr. Dre to Dr. John, and referred to by Mick Fleetwood - founder and drummer of Fleetwood Mac - as his “Secret Weapon” and “not only a master percussionist, but an incredible musician,” and rock queen Stevie Nicks has proclaimed nightly on her solo tours that Taku is "the best percussion player, I think, in the world."

Born in Osaka, Japan and raised in California and Hong Kong, Taku began his musical journey at age 7 with Classical piano, transitioned to marimba, Classical concert percussion and drum set at age 9, and then added Afro-Cuban and Brazilian hand percussion as a teen.

Taku is a Bachelor of Music graduate - cum laude - of Berklee College of Music as the institution’s first Hand Percussion principal, where he studied Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, South Indian, Middle Eastern and West African percussion, and was under the tutelage of conga master Giovanni Hidalgo for four years. He also studied with jazz drumming legend Alan Dawson, West African and North Indian musical traditions with master percussionists as a World Percussion graduate student at California Institute of the Arts, and conducted a research trip to Havana through the U.S. Treasury Department, studying at the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte (ENA) and at the home of Afro-Cuban percussion pioneer Changuito for a month.

Taku began his career in Los Angeles, working with jazz multi-reedist Bennie Maupin of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters alongside keyboardist Patrice Rushen and his mentor, renowned session drummer Ndugu Chancler. Within his first 5 years on the L.A. scene, Taku became one of the top-call percussionists in hip hop on both coasts, performing live with Sean “Diddy” Combs and his NYC-based Bad Boy Entertainment artist roster, including Faith Evans, Lil’ Kim, 112 and Mary J. Blige, and for Aftermath Entertainment as Dr. Dre’s go-to L.A. studio percussionist on tracks for Nas, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and for Dre himself on his seminal album 2001 (with samples of Taku from 2001 later used by Dre in producing Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2 album).

Taku’s client list has spanned the pinnacles of practically every commercial music genre. He has toured the world with Fleetwood Mac, Whitney Houston, John Mayer, Bette Midler, Stevie Nicks, Lionel Richie, Dr. John, as a soloist on Indian and Japanese percussion for Academy Award-winning Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire “Jai Ho” world tour, as a featured soloist on the #7 top-grossing music tour of all time, “Michael Jackson: THE IMMORTAL World Tour” by Cirque du Soleil and the Michael Jackson Estate, and as a consultant to Trent Reznor for the Nine Inch Nails “Lights In The Sky” world tour. He has performed in major arenas and stadiums in 30 countries across five continents, in Russia as a member of the United Nations/UNESCO International Jazz Day All-Star Band under the direction of Herbie Hancock, twice in South Africa for President Nelson Mandela, and twice at the White House for President Barack Obama (including the Obama-Biden Administration's first State Dinner, honoring His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India).

Taku’s performance credits also include Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Annie Lennox, Steven Tyler, Miley Cyrus, Shakira, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Ed Sheeran, George Clinton, Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson, Sammy Hagar, Patti LaBelle, Melissa Etheridge, John Legend, Andra Day, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Andrea Bocelli, Yolanda  Adams, Blue Man Group, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Taku’s recording credits include Fleetwood Mac, Whitney Houston, Stevie Nicks, Ziggy Marley, LeAnn Rimes, Josh Groban, Nelly Furtado, and Lionel Richie, in addition to numerous film scores, soundtracks and television shows.

As a recording artist and producer, Taku has been featured on the 2021 GRAMMY Awards, in national campaigns for Guitar Center, included in ORIGIN Magazine's list of Top 100 Creatives, and released four albums under his production duo Tao Of Sound on the Japanese label Domo Music Group: Metro (2010), Ronin EP (2012), Ronin (2013), and These Times (2016). His compositions have also been featured on The CW Network television shows (Walker, iZombie) and network promos, and signature sound libraries for Splice, Big Fish Audio and Producer Loops.
Taku signed to Ropeadope Records under the Modern Icon Recordings imprint to  showcase his return to jazz. His first single, “Come And Get It,” featuring trumpet phenom Keyon Harrold, released in July 2021 and was promoted nightly on Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC) during Taku's weeklong guest stint in the house band. Taku's debut album Blu York - Live in NYC released in October 2021. In support of the album, Taku joined ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro as a special guest on a 32-city North American/Hawaiian Islands tour through November and December 2021. On April 21, 2022, Taku dropped his second sound library for Splice, Taku Hirano: Hot Butta Beats & Percussion.

Taku most recently performed live on the 65th annual GRAMMY Awards telecast (February 2023) with music legends Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson (with special guest Chris Stapleton). He is also currently on the road playing drums and percussion with country pop icon LeAnn Rimes for her "the story... so far" 2022-2023 tour.

Stanton Moore is a GRAMMY award-winning drummer, educator and performer born and raised in New Orleans. He is especially connected to his hometown city, its culture and collaborative spirit. In the early ‘90s, Moore helped found the New Orleans-based essential funk band Galactic who continue to amass a worldwide audience via recording and touring globally. The band has averaged 100 shows a year for the last 25 years.

In 2018, Moore and his bandmates in Galactic pooled their resources to purchase the internationally renowned music venue Tipitina’s.

Moore launched his solo career in 1998. He has 8 records under his own name with the most current being "With You In Mind: The Songs of Allen Toussaint".

Throughout his 25 year career, Moore has played and or recorded with a diverse group of artists including Maceo Parker, Joss Stone, Irma Thomas, Leo Nocentelli and George Porter (of the Meters),Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine), Corrosion of Conformity, Donald Harrison Jr., Nicholas Payton, Trombone Shorty, Skerik, Charlie Hunter, Robert Walter, Will Bernard, Ivan Neville, Anders Osborne and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

He has also appeared numerous times on the Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'brien and Seth Meyers late night TV night shows.

With a bachelor’s degree in music and business from Loyola University, Moore stays involved in education by constantly presenting clinics and teaching master classes and private lessons all over the world. He has released two books and three video projects. His book Groove Alchemy was picked by Modern Drummer as one of the top 25 instructional drum books of all time. To continue with his passion for teaching and to become more closely connected with his students, he recently launched his own online drum academy, StantonMooreDrumAcademy.com.

Ari Teitel is a multiple GRAMMY-nominated musician, producer, singer and songwriter based in New Orleans. The former member of Mardi Gras Indian Funk band Cha Wa earned two nominations for Best Regional Roots Music Album during his tenure with the group, for which he served as musical director, songwriter, producer, and guitarist. Celebrated for his fluency in funk, jazz, blues, soul, r&b, gospel, rock, and more, Teitel has performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, JazzAscona in Switzerland, Ottawa Jazz Festival and Cupa Dupa in New Zealand. He has worked with Iggy Pop, PJ Morton, George Porter Jr.,Ivan Neville, Nigel Hall, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mononeon, and many more.

In early 2022, Teitel and six other members of Cha Wa left the band and formed The Rumble featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., a Mardi Gras Indian funk group who performed at the New Orleans Jazz Fest that Spring. The group is working on a debut album. In late 2022, Teitel will release his first solo project in five years, I Got My Thing, featuring Nigel Hall, Jamison Ross, Erica Falls, and Paul Randolph.

Brad Walker is one of the most active and sought-after performers in the city of New Orleans. Perhaps best known for his “soaring” (Rolling Stone), “energetic” (NPR), and “tasteful” (Relix) solos on Saturday Night Live, the Grammys, and the Tonight Show with Nashville mega-star Sturgill Simpson, Brad Walker is an active and compelling artist in his own right, with five full-length releases under his own name and a decade of music- making in the Crescent City under his belt. His 2014 debut, ‘Quintet’, received a 4-**** review in DownBeat magazine, and his playing has received praise in Variety, OffBeat Magazine, Gambit Weekly, Dig!, and many others.

Since 2009 Walker has performed or recorded with such luminaries as Bernard Purdie, Peter Erskine, John Riley, George Porter, Jr., Zigaboo Modeliste, Anders Osborne, Marcia Ball, Rickie Lee Jones, Valerie June, Better than Ezra, and countless others, and has led the horn sections for Grammy-winner Sturgille Simpson, Blues Award-winner Ana Popovic and OffBeat Award winners Eric Lindell, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Honey Island Swamp Band, and Colin Lake.

In 2019/2020, Walker was nominated for two ‘Best of the Beat’ Awards (OffBeat Magazine), in the ‘Contemporary Jazz’ category as ‘Best Artist’ and for ‘Best Record’, alongside such international stars as Nicholas Payton, Jon Batiste, Herlin Riley, Christian Scott, and Terence Blanchard. He was also nominated by the ‘Big Easy Awards’ (Gambit Magazine) for ‘Best Contemporary Jazz Artist’. These two award ceremonies are considered among the highest achievements in the New Orleans music community.

Brad holds a Bachelor of Music degree in classical saxophone performance (2006) and Master of Music degree in jazz studies (2011), both from Louisiana State University.