Far more than a master percussionist, internationally renowned multi-Grammy-nominated Afro-Latin bandleader, John Santos, is a prolific, composer, teacher, writer, producer, and cultural activist with a musical career of over 50 years based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked with acknowledged masters including Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Bebo Valdés, Max Roach, Eddie Palmieri, and Omar Sosa. He is an Advisory Board member of Oaktown Jazz, Living Jazz, and the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance (NY), and a former Trustee of SFJAZZ. His latest CD, Horizontes, was released in 2025 on his Machete Records label (founded in 1984). November 12th, 2006 was proclaimed John Santos Day in San Francisco by Mayoral proclamation.

David Flores, a Bay Area drummer, began his musical journey at the ripe age of three, when he performed on a set of pots and pans in his family’s kitchen. David grew up steeped in music. As a child, he would tag along to his dad’s gigs and rehearsals; music was in his DNA. Since then, he has developed a 25+ year career as an educator, performer, and, above all, tireless student of his instrument. He now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Versatility is one of David’s great strengths and leading inspirations. From Afro-Caribbean to Funk to Jazz, if it’s rhythmically oriented, David is among the best. His performance and studio careers include tours, gigs, and recordings with Donna Summer,Lauryn Hill, Zakir Hussain, Chester ‘CT’ Thompson, Larry Rosenthal, Margret Cho, Jerry Gonzalez,  Larry Harlow, Steve Turre, Charlie Musselwhite, Barbra Dane, John Santos, Bobbi Céspedes, Ellen Toscano, Greg Landau,  Mary Wilson, Rebecca Mauleon Santana, Mickey Hart, Melvin Seals, Marc Bamuthi-Joseph, Ska Cubano, and The Oakland Symphony.

Marco Díaz is an accomplished recording musician who has shared the stage with Grammy Award winning artist Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Nelson Gonzales, Jimmy Bosch, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Ska Cubano (Europe), Tito Rojas, Nino Segarra, Anthony Cruz, and John Santos. He currently produces records and performs music throughout the country while also co-leading El Tren, an Afro-Caribbean dance band, and directing the Marco Diaz Quartet. Marco was born and raised in San Francisco and studied both piano and trumpet at the Community Music Center throughout his childhood. He currently serves on the faculty at the Community Music Center in San Francisco. He was also part of the SFJAZZ teaching artist program 2017-2022. Marco is currently working with the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music Program.

Dr. John Calloway is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator who has performed with Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Omar Sosa, and Max Roach, and in the Bay Area with John Santos, Mark Levine, and Marcus Shelby. He received an Emmy for his composition "No Hay Nada Mas SF" and arranged music for the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn and his own recording Asere Ko (2016). He founded the Afro Cuban Ensemble at San Francisco State University in 1999 and co-founded the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco in 2021, while serving as an educator, SFUSD arts administrator, and San Francisco Arts Commissioner.

Charlie Gurke is a Bay Area based saxophonist, composer, and educator. In addition to leading his own projects, Charlie is a member of the John Santos Sextet, The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra,  and Edgardo Cambon’s groups Candela and Latido, and more. Charlie is currently on the faculty at Laney Community college in Oakland the Community Music Center in San Francisco, and the Jazzchool in Berkeley. Charlie holds a bachelor's degree in music with an emphasis on composition from California State University East Bay (aka Cal State Hayward), and a master's degree in jazz studies from the University of Oregon.

Bassist, composer, arranger, educator Saul Sierra, was born and raised in México City and graduated from the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999. Saul has been a performing/teaching artist in the SF Symphony’s Adventures in Music program for many years. He is currently among the most in-demand bassists on the local scene in the Latin Jazz and Salsa fields, having added his rock-solid rhythmic and harmonic foundation to recordings and performances with Bobi Céspedes, Jackeline Rago, Fito Reinoso, Charanson, Dr. Loco, Maria Márquez, Jesus Diaz, the San José Jazz Collective, and John Santos and The Machete Ensemble among many others. Saul is also a founding member of Visión Latina.