Mark Thomas Rhodes (born 11 September 1981) is an English singer and television presenter.

Born in Darlaston, Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, England, Mark finished in second place in the second series of Pop Idol in the UK, runner-up to Michelle McManus. After Pop Idol, he teamed up with third-place Sam Nixon, releasing two singles under the name Sam & Mark. In February 2004, their cover of the song "With a Little Help from My Friends" reached #1 in the UK singles chart, remaining there for one week. Their second single 'The Sun Has Come Your Way" only reached #19 in the singles chart. The pair were subsequently dropped from their record label.

Mark went on to co-present Top of the Pops Reloaded with Sam Nixon and Fearne Cotton in 2004. From April 2006, Mark co-hosted the weekday children's breakfast show Level Up on BBC Two alongside Nixon and Ayesha Asantewaa. Level Up finished its first series in September 2006.

Since September 2006, Rhodes co-presents BBC Two's Saturday morning show TMi alongside Sam Nixon and television presenter Caroline Flack. He has his own short segment of the show called "Question Mark", A feature where he tries to answer viewers' questions, but Caroline and Sam talk through it. In later series Caroline left and the show moved to Fridays. He also co-presented Do Something Different with Sam Nixon and Ayesha Asantewaa. Sam and Mark have produced children's reality series, Who wants to be a Superhero? and Sam and Mark's guide to Dodging Disaster.

Sam Nixon (born 21 March 1986) is an English singer and television presenter. He came third on the Pop Idol television series in 2003 and is now one half of the duo Sam & Mark, with the other being Mark Rhodes.

He was born in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, England. Nixon was originally a catering student from Barnsley College in South Yorkshire. He attended Holgate School, Barnsley from 1997 to 2002 and is still living in Barnsley.

Nixon's first television appearance was on popular children's game show Fun House presented by Pat Sharp. Nixon and fellow contestant Rosie Feast didn't manage to answer the final question to win the grand prize.

After coming in third on the Pop Idol television series in 2003, he formed a duo with Mark Rhodes, called Sam & Mark. Sam & Mark had a #1 UK chart hit with their cover of The Beatles tune "With a Little Help from My Friends". Their second single "The Sun Has Come Your Way" debuted in the UK top 40 at #19, but they were dropped from their record deal after this release.

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.

Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.

His career has been driven by his will to operate as a free agent and compulsively explore different avenues of music making. This hunger has positioned him as an important catalyst in the world of serious, mainstream acoustic jazz, and he is one of the most influential and widely studied figures in the last 40 years.

Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, such as eradicating social illiteracy, and is a Scientologist.

Robert Conti (born November 21, 1945) is an American hard bop jazz guitarist.

Conti was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1970 he left music to pursue a career in the securities industry. In 1976 he began playing jazz again. In 1979, he was signed to LA based Discovery Records label. Conti released Latin Love Affair and a Direct To Disc recording titled Solo Guitar as his debut efforts as a leader in 1979. In 1982 he left music again for the business world. In 1985 he managed to released another album, and in 1986 he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen. In mid 1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late '88, he was offered a position as resident jazz guitarist at the Irvine Marriott. He held that gig until mid 1998. Many of his most recent endeavors have been didactic in nature; since starting his website in 2000, he has released 27 educational DVDs on jazz guitar, including pro chord melody and improvisation using his trademark No Modes No Scales approach to teaching jazz guitar. On March 7, 2009, Robert Conti was a guest of the Las Vegas Guitar Club where he conducted a master class/clinic to a standing room only crowd at Sam Ash Music Store. [1]