Gonzalo Rubalcaba (born May 27, 1963 in Havana, Cuba) is a Grammy Award-winning Cuban jazz pianist and composer.

Gonzalo has performed with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Ignacio Berroa, Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden, Katia Labèque, Richard Galliano, Francisco Céspedes, Tony Martinez, Issac Delgado, Juan Luis Guerra, Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Eric Harland, Dennis Chambers, Brian Bromberg, Ron Carter, Yosvany Terry, Matt Brewer, Mike Rodriguez, Marcus Gilmore, Pat Martino, Giovanni Hidalgo, John Patitucci, Jack DeJohnette, Joao Bosco, Ivan Lins and many others.

Gonzalo Julio Gonzalez Fonseca was born in Havana, Cuba, May 27, 1963, into a musical family rich in the traditions of the country’s artistic past. During his childhood, in addition to the standard fare of elementary schools, Gonzalo was absorbing his Cuban musical heritage through personal contacts within his family, notably his father, pianist Guillermo Rubalcaba, and leading musicians who were frequent houseguests: Frank Emilio, Pedro "Peruchin" Justiz, Felipe Dulzaides and others. He also assimilated through scarce and treasured recordings the tunes and styles of 40’s – 70’s US jazz masters: Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson among pianists; and instrumentalists Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey.

Ivan Guimarães Lins (born June 16, 1945) is a Latin Grammy-winning Brazilian musician. He has been an active performer and songwriter of Brazilian popular music (MPB) and jazz for over 30 years. His first hit,“Madalena,” was recorded by Elis Regina in 1970. Beyond his own performance of his compositions, Simone is his most notable and respected interpreter. His 1989 hit song "Love Dance" is one of the most re-recorded songs in musical history.

Testifying to Lins's importance as a composer is the frequency with which tribute albums and new covers of his compositions appear. His jazz classics have been recorded by many notable international artists including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, George Benson, the Manhattan Transfer, Diane Schuur, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Eliane Elias, Patti Austin, Sting, Toots Thielemans, Take 6, Lee Ritenour, David Benoit, Carlos do Carmo, Mark Murphy, Dave Grusin, Sérgio Mendes, Michael Bublé, and countless others.

Ivan Lins was born in Rio de Janeiro. He spent several years in Boston, Massachusetts, while his father, a naval engineer, continued his graduate studies at M.I.T., studied at the Military College in Rio. He later received a degree in industrial chemical engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He considered a career in volleyball before discovering his considerable musical talent. Ivan Lins currently resides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

João Bosco de Freitas Mucci, better known as João Bosco (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʒoãw ˈbosku]) is a noted Brazilian singer-songwriter with a distinctive style as a guitarist. In the 1970s he established his reputation in Brazilian MPB alongside collaborator lyricist Aldir Blanc.

Born on July 13, 1946, in Ponte Nova, Minas Gerais, João Bosco's profession was engineering when he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where his songs were also recorded by Elis Regina and were a success. He soon became admired as a versatile vocalist and a dynamic performer. João Bosco has been noted for "his singular fusion of Arab culture, Afro-American music and Brazilian styles bossa nova," influenced by American jazz.^{[citation needed]} In the introduction to his three-volume Songbook, Almir Chediak observes, "Brilliant composer João Bosco's melodic and harmonic constructions are among the most auspicious in Brazilian music." Chapter Five of Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB 1965-1985 by Charles A. Perrone (U Texas P 1989) is dedicated to the work of Bosco and Blanc.

Al Di Meola (born Al Laurence Dimeola, July 22, 1954, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date. Albums such as Friday Night in San Francisco have earned him both artistic and commercial success with a solid fan base throughout the world.

Di Meola grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and attended Bergenfield High School. He is now a resident of Bergen County, New Jersey.

In 1971, he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1974 he joined Chick Corea's band, Return to Forever, and played with the band until a major lineup shift in 1976.

Di Meola went on to explore a variety of styles, but is most noted for his Latin-influenced jazz fusion works. He is a four-time winner as Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine's Reader Poll.

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.