Marco Eneidi, Darren Johnston, John Finkbeiner, Damon Smith, Vijay Anderson

"Offend these people....".....said Franz West to Marco at an opening at a blue chip gallery while shoving a stack of Euros into his hand. Marco worked for him for a time when he moved to Vienna from Oakland. West & Eneidi were a great match in many ways. The world is a worse place without their dark, mischievous & hilarious viewpoints. They had a similar over the top, over-achieving approach to their work.

My first real improvised music concert was a trio with Marco and Gino Robair. I went in right at the deep end and never looked back. Marco was a mentor for me, I basically apprenticed for him for years, helping him organize concerts and playing together often in all sorts of groups. He taught me the way Cecil Taylor's notation system works (as well as gviing me the opportunity to play with Cecil!) and many other things. I still use his turntable, a Technics SL-Q3, to this day.

Right around the time of that first trio concert, the Quiet Storm All Stars appeared: Aaron Bennett, Charles Sharp & John Finkbeiner. We played many shows together, sharing bills but rarely together. A short time later, the great bassist Adam Lane came to the Bay Area and Finkbeiner & Bennett were often in his bands. Adam subsequently moved to NYC and Lisa Mezzacappa showed up around that time; the All Stars began playing in her bands and made equally great but very different music. We all used to play in Marco's large groups and at a certain point this quintet came about. It was the only time I got to work with Finkbeiner in a small group. Marco had been to Europe to play a concert with Han Bennink but had not moved there yet. He wrote this fantastic quintet music and put this group together to play it." - Damon Smith