EBONI FONDREN

At the tender age of 3, Eboni discovered her voice while singing along with her father in his basement studio of their Chicago brownstone apartment. Over the years her talents developed and were showcased in several community talent shows and school programs. By the time she was 9 or 10, she knew that singing was something that would be apart of who she was for the rest of her life.

Throughout middle school and high school, she continued to hone her talents in choir, applied music and voice lessons. It was within her parents extensive collection of "Dusties" she found her love for old school soul, classic R&B and Contemporary Jazz. 

In College, her love affair with jazz music began , and upon graduation she embarked on a journey to make a name for herself in the Kansas City jazz scene. After a brief stint in the late night jazz jam rotations, she was led to the Internationally acclaimed Hammond B-3 organ player  and band leader Mr. Everette DeVan. Under his tutelage she learned the Do's and Dont's of working with the jazz band ensemble. With year's of one-on-one lessons in front of the organ, and live experience in front of an audience, Everette shaped her in to one of the premiere jazz vocalists in Kansas City. 

Since graduating from the "Everette School of Music", she has become a band leader in her own right.  Her collaborations with some of Kansas City's top musicians can be heard swinging all over the local jazz scene. She has had the opportunity to represent Kansas City around the country and the world.

GERALD SPAITS

Gerald Spaits, a native of Kansas City, is one of the foremost bass players in the Kansas City area. Spaits has enjoyed an active career including playing with jazz legends Jay McShann and Claude “Fiddler” Williams. Appearing with national recording artists Herb Ellis, Karrin Allyson, Marilyn Maye, Gary Foster, and The Woody Herman Orchestra,among others. He has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain. Mr. Spaits is the adjunct assistant professor of jazz string bass at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and leads a bass ensemble at UMKC. He also teaches private lessons.

Gerald is involved in the development and creation of many bands and projects. Composing and arranging for groups including The Gerald Spaits Trio, The Gerald Spaits Quartet, The Westport Art Ensemble, The Kansas City Bass Quartet and his latest project Sax and Violins, a combination of string quartet and jazz quartet.
Gerald has released albums on his own label PASSIT productions including “Three Sides,” “The Westport Art Ensemble,” “Westport Art Ensemble live,” and two albums by KC jazz pianist Russ Long: “Never Let me Go” and “Time to Go.” Gerald has also written instruction books for jazz bass and written arrangements for everything from Big Band to Solo Bass.

JIM MAIR

Jim Mair is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in saxophone, flute, percussion, jazz piano and voice. As a High School Student he played lead tenor in the Canadian High School All Star Big Band and that same year his Quintet was selected top combo in Canada. He has been a full time college professor for 20 years, recently the recipient of the Henry Louis Outstanding KCKCC Faculty member award, the League for Innovation Excellence in Education Award and in 2015 was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Western London, College of Music in the United Kingdom. As a director/performer, his groups have appeared at the Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the IAJE Conference, Birdland in New York City along with the JVC Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall. Since 1992, he has conducted multiple All State Jazz Ensembles and has served as a clinician/adjudicator across North America for the Conn Selmer Instrument company. He has been a CD reviewer for the Saxophone Journal and a jazz radio host across the northwestern United States for National Public Radio. Jim has been a featured cover story on four periodicals and also voted Best Saxophonist by the readers of JAM magazine in Kansas City. Jim and his wife Mary founded the non-profit Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the Kansas City Jazz Alliance, two of Kansas City’s most active jazz organizations presenting a subscription series, monthly concerts, annual festivals and camps and frequent master classes. Jim holds music degrees from the University of Mary and the UMKC Conservatory of Music, and has done additional study at the Banff Jazz Workshop and the Aspen Music Festival.