The Stein/Smith/Shead trio features some of the most influential and prolific musicians working in improvised music today. The trio has toured extensively throughout the United States since the release of their debut album Volumes & Surfaces on the Balance Point Acoustics record label, receiving institutional support from such organizations as South Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The group has been described as "undiluted free jazz with energy as its calling card and attention as its driver" by Mark Corroto of All About Jazz .
Jason Stein, who has won the El Intruso International Critics Poll from 2017-2020, is lauded as possibly the most important bass clarinetist of his time. Performing in such groups as Natural Information Society, Hearts and Minds, and Jason Stein Quartet; Jason Stein has made himself known as a master of his unwieldy instrument.
Damon Smith has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra’s Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Keith Rowe, Jaap Blonk,Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, Weasel Walter, Marco Eneidi, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and six great years in Houston, Texas working regularly with Alvin Fielder, Sandy Ewen, Thomas Helton, David Dove & Chris Cogburn. Damon moved to the Boston area in the fall of 2016 and began working with Jeb Bishop, Pandelis Karayorgis, Joe McPhee and Ra-Kalam Bob Moses and many others.
Adam Shead can be heard performing regularly throughout Chicago at such venues as Constellation, Hungry Brain, Elastic Arts, and Experimental Sound Studio; performing alongside such musicians as Jason Stein, Damon Smith, Josh Berman, Steve Swell, John Dikeman, Jasper Stadhouers, Angel Bat Dawid, Matt Piet, James Falzone, and Mary Oliver. Adam has recorded music for Amalgam Records, Ears & Eyes Records, Scripts Records, and Impermanent Records. In 2016 he was selected as Artist in Residence for the Birdsell Project’s summer season. Adam has performed at renowned festivals such as EdgeFest, DOEK festival, and Homebody Festival. Shead holds a Bachelors of Music in Percussion Performance from Columbia College Chicago as well as Masters of Music in Contemporary Improvisation and a Graduate Certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan.