Nick Gianni's EVOLUTION

Nick began performing at the age of 18. His grandfather played Saxophone in local NYC big bands and made sure Nick had strong musical training. Nick eventually made his way to NYC's Downtown Jazz scene playing in Luther Thomas band, which featured the likes of Dennis Charles, Billy Bang, and On Davis. By 1990, Nick caught the ear of European radio and film star Ursula, whom he went on tour with. Throughout his career Nick has had the distinction of recording and performing with many great musicians, including: Dr John, Marshall Allen, Kenny Wollesen, Chris Parker, Hugh McCracken, Butch Morris, Juini Booth, Jojo Kuo, Daniel Carter, Jesse Harris, The Brazilian Girls, and Nublu Orchestra.

Nick has toured throughout Europe and Australia performing on festival stages in Melbourne, France, Switzerland, and Italy, including TV features on Good Morning Australia and MTV Europe.

Rick Bottari has been performing on Piano since the age of 16. His father was a pro drummer playing with Herbie Mann and George Shearing and would often bring young Ricky to sessions and gigs to sit in. Immediately after graduating High School Rick went on tour with Taylor Dayne's band. That opened doors which landed him as the Keyboard player for Michael Jacksons world tour. After playing with Michael Jackson Rick focused on his career as a recording engineer working in the studio with the likes of RUN DMC and James Brown. Ricks synthesizer can be heard on countless recordings and is a feature for the band EVOLUTION.

On Davis is an eclectic, electric guitar player. He has played professionally since the 1970's in his tenure as guitarist with Sun Ra Arkestra and Don Ayler. In the 1980's he cofounded the Black Rock Coalition with his contemporary Vernon Reid. throughout his career Davis has performed and recorded with Jef Lee Johnson, Nick Russo, Melvin Gibbs, Tess Marsalis, Juini Booth, Khusenaton Shu Amon, Matthew Shipp, Sabir Mateen, Daniel Carter, Graham Haynes, Kenny Wollessen, Victor Jones, Kim Clarke, Andrew Lamb, Andre LaSalle, Vernon Reid, Charles 'Bobo' Shaw and many others .

Dmitry Ishenko is an experienced and versatile bass player. He has performed with such Jazz masters as Steve Lacy, John Tchicai, Joe Lovano, Myron Walden, Sam Yahel, Roy Campbell, Jr., Marty Ehrlich and many others. Equally at home on both the acoustic and electric bass, he is also a busy session player, most recently recording and touring with Paul Banks of Interpol for his solo project Julian Plenti. .. Dmitry was born in Odessa, Ukraine, where he studied piano as a child, and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 13. In High School, he began gigging professionally with his school jazz band and several rock outfits.

Dalius Naujokaitis is an expert Drummer/percussionist. He began his musical career in the late eighties as part of the Vilnius jazz scene in Lithuania. He made an impressive entry to the NYC scene in 1995 with a series of original solo performances at Jonas Mekas’ Anthology Film Archives. He began to collaborate with Auguste Varkalis, Jonas Mekas and friends in Free Music on Second Street group, and partaking in the Now We Are Here Orchestra’ projects. His drumming is featured in films by Jonas Mekas and other avant-garde filmmakers. He has played and recorded with a variety of New York bands such as Kenny Wolleson’s Himalayas and Wollesonics, Art Baron, Butch Morris, Joey Barron, Brazilian Girls and Otomo Yoshihide,