The Chicago-based quintet Zing! had intended to be a one-shot, performing for a birthday party on May 22, 2006, but have stayed together doing concerts, touring, and recording. A jazz ensemble that plays both composed and improvised music, Zing! tap into the more progressive post-John Coltrane elements of early creative and hard bop, while incorporating Latin; funk; drum'n'bass, electronica, and ambient music; free elements; classical music; and punk rock. Trumpeter James Davis composes most of the music, leads his own quintet away from Zing!, and was a finalist in the 2004 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Improvisation Competition and the 2007 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition. Alto saxophonist and professional journalist Caroline Davis moved to Chicago in 2004 to pursue a Ph.D. in music cognition. She received a Down Beat magazine outstanding soloist award in 2006 and an outstanding graduate student presentation in Portugal in 2005, and has been with the Sisters in Jazz, also in 2005. She has played with composer Stephen Syverud's backGammon, Pedway, the Tomorrow Music Orchestra, and Ear to the Ground. Guitarist Dave Miller has been a three-time consecutive winner in the Union & Civic Arts League of Chicago Competition, and is heard with the experimental indie jazz group Algernon. New Orleans native and electric bass guitarist Matthew Golombisky was a co-founder of the Tomorrow Music Orchestra and the Ears & Eyes record label, collective, and festival. He collaborates with the Other Planets, QMRplus, Grilly Biggs, Pedway, Ear to the Ground, and Lucky 7s. Chicago native and drummer/composer Quin Kirschner lived in New Orleans, playing in groups with Golombisky and Miller, as well as in Chicago. Kirschner has also performed with Salamander and Blink. Zing! have toured the Midwest, and were showcased during the 2007 International Association for Improvised Music conference at Northwestern University, where Caroline Davis is a grad student and has taught a few classes. They have recorded the CD Magnetic Flux for the Ears & Eyes label. ~ Michael G. Nastos