The members of the quintet are:

Sam Robinson – trumpet

Scott Angst – tenor saxophone

Linard Stroud – drums

Gabriel Datcu – guitar

John Sutton - bass

Since 2003, Sam Robinson has played in Chicago venues such as Andy’s Jazz Club, The Green Mill, The Whistler, Hunter’s, Café Prague and Norman’s Bistro. He was also a member of the Chicago-based Shelley Yoelin Jazz Worshop Septet and has been a repeated guest soloist at the Serbian Village jazz club. He currently leads the Sam Robinson Quartet. In 2019, he released his debut album, “Sweet Love of Mine,” and in 2022 his second album, “Be With Me: Live at the Eastgate Café,” became available for purchase. 

According to Chicago Jazz Magazine, Robinson plays, at times, with “elegant restraint and muted tones,” and at other times with “an intelligent extemporization that has a burnished sound and simmering passion.”

Tenor Saxophonist, Scott Angst, studied Jazz Performance and Composition at Northern Illinois University and DePaul University. He studied saxophone with Mark Colby, Steve Duke, and Rich Corpolongo; and composition with Joey Sellers and Tom Matta. He performs in and around Chicagoland with various artists.  

Linard Stroud Jr. began playing drums at age 3 with his father at the legendary Chicago Lakefront Drum Circle. Linard has performed and/or recorded with various gospel, blues, jazz and r&b artists such as Lionel Hampton, CC Winans, Jennifer Holiday, Ricky Dillard, Buddy Guy, Syl Johnson and Steve Arrington.

A current a graduate from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, bassist Nicholas Davis is studying jazz to make a career doing what he loves. His time at Roosevelt opened his ears where he played in the Fusion, Brazilian, Hard Bop, and the avant-garde groups.

Pianist Michael Walters has led a weekly Jazz Jam session in Chicago for 10+ years (now residing at “Jen’s Guesthouse “ in Willow Springs, Ill). After and graduating from DePaul University with a Bachelor Degree in Music he became a professional Trumpet player through this early years and played in some of Chicago’s finest showrooms for such artists as Ella Fitztgerald, Bob Hope, Pointer Sisters, Steve and Eydie Gorme and many others. He later decided to switch instruments and take his love of piano to the next level. He studied classical piano with the renown Teacher Goldie Golub as well with local Chicago Jazz teachers including Larry Novak, Alan Swain, Skip Green, John Cambell and from Atlanta -Kevin Bales.