This New Jersey based ensemble has been performing at Shanghai Jazz since 2007.  Steve Hess along with pianist Mark Weber and bassist Bud Ayres have led Jazz Vespers services at the Presbyterian Church in Morristown since 2017.

Pianist Mark Weber graduated from Eastman and the Manhattan School of Music and has worked extensively as an accompanist and sideman. He currently teaches music in the Warren Township public schools.

Bassist Bud Ayres was raised in a musical family. Bud started playing piano at six, then trombone at nine, studying with Walt SAyre. In college, Bud started playing bass, electric at first, and later switched to upright bass. As an upright bassist, Bud studied with Michael Moore and Nate Leinhard, attended many summer jazz workshops, performed extensively, and has been a member of the Caldwell Jazz Band for ten years. Bud is a teacher of mathematics at Mount Saint Dominic Acadamy.

Drummer Steve Hess studied classical and jazz percussion at the University of Delaware.  He was formerly a member of the Maplewood-based big band Swingtown. He teaches statistics at Governor Livingston High School.

After graduating Berklee College of Music in 1987, Josh Rubin embarked on a career as a performing guitarist and teaching.  He performed with such artists as George Coleman, David Grisman, Claudio Roditi, Grady Tate and Martha Reevesand the Vandellas in venues including Carnegie Hall, The Knitting Factory, Village Gate, Pier 16, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall.