Member 1976 - Present

(Bass, flutes)

Mike Johnston formed the Northwoods Improvisers in 1976 with multi-instrumentalist Mike Gilmore and percussionist John Plough in Traverse City, Michigan. He holds an M.F.A. in Photography and Art from Central Michigan University and currently teaches at Delta College. Mike worked at record stores during his early life until the store he managed New Moon closed doors in 2006. He wrote many articles and hosted interviews for Coda magazine from 1981-2000. Since 1988 Mike has also hosted the weekly jazz and world music radio program Destination Out on WCMU Public Radio. Uploads of his previously aired shows can be found here.

Member 1986 - Present

(Drums, percussion)

Nick Ashton (son of professional drummer James Ashton) began formal instruction at age eleven and continued band and orchestra in public school and college. He played different genres of music through college and after, settling in NYC in 1978 for 6 1/2 years whereupon jazz and improvised music became the only musical focus. He returned to Indiana in 1985 and began playing on the Indianapolis scene in 1986. He began playing with the Northwoods in 1987 and has continued performing with them ever since.

Member 2016 - Present

(Soprano and tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet, percussion)

Since moving to the metro Detroit area in early 2016 with degrees from Central Michigan University and the University of Michigan, Dominic Bierenga has established a presence there as a progressive and creative musician and educator, specializing in a wide range of saxophones, clarinets, and flutes. He is a current member of Paddlebots, the Zen Zadravec Quintet, Northwoods Improvisers, and the Dr. Prof. Leonard King Orchestra. He has also performed or recorded with a wide variety of artists as Gary Burton, Beartrap, Marcus Elliot, Grey Matter, Nick Small, the Planet D Nonet, the Jeff Hamilton Trio, and many more. He also teaches in-person and online lessons in saxophone at all levels, improvisation (jazz and otherwise), and composition and arranging. Besides his work as an instrumentalist, Bierenga is also a composer of several works in the Northwoods Improvisers repertoire.

Member 2017 - Present

(Soprano, C, and tenor saxophone, oboe, percussion)

Multi-instrumentalist playing saxophones, flutes, recorders, and more, Donovan Boxey, like Bierenga a Central Michigan University alum, has been playing with variations of Northwoods Improvisers and Collective having also studied with John Lindberg and at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. In 2017 the two released a duo CD As Iron Sharpens Iron, and two years later Boxey launched his solo album Speaking in Tongues (Solos 2019). He is active on the Detroit scene, playing with his own groups as well as with those led by others such as the Dr. Prof. Leonard King Orchestra. 

Member 2022 - Present

(Violin)

Mike Khoury is an experimental composer, violinist/violist, and improviser deeply influenced by Detroit and Arab-diasporic musical traditions. He also works as a free improviser and you can see him perform as a member of the Redford Symphony Orchestra. Trained as an economist, he applies quantitative approaches from Econometrics to his work as a musician, using strategies to arrive at outcomes in compositional and performance settings. Working with Palestinian/Syrian-American choreographer/organizer Leyya Tawil, Ben Hall, and many others, he has presented work locally and internationally in conversation with traditional folk concerns, political identity, and the Arab avant-garde.

As a Detroit organizer/curator, through the Entropy Stereo record label and the Entropy Studios performance space Khoury has presented the live or recorded music of Griot Galaxy, Black Merda, Wendell Harrison, Ben Miller, Faruq Z. Bey, Bobby Bradford, Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre, and many others.  He has also authored a chapter on Halim El-Dabh included in an anthology of the Arab avant-garde published by Wesleyan University Press. In 2018, Khoury was the recipient of a Knight Arts Challenge Grant and was named a Kresge Arts in Detroit fellow in 2020.

Member 2022 - Present

(Cello, bass, percussion)

Jack O’Brien is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Michigan who joined the Northwoods collective in the spring of 2022. O’Brien studied composition, bass, and voice at Central Michigan University and has recently penned several pieces for the group. During his undergraduate degree he studied with composers Evan Ware and Jay Batzner whose influence on rhythm and harmony built a foundation for what would become his musical philosophy. O'Brien's compositions center on the blues, modal, contemporary, poly-tonal, and minimalist harmony, as well as poly-metric rhythmic ideas. Most recently O’Brien and fellow Northwoods member Mike Khoury have collaborated in a duo, and presented the Free Palestine string quartets of New York City-based composer John King.

Member 2000 - 2012

(Tenor, alto, soprano saxophone, flute)

Faruq is the founder of the seminal creative Detroit based jazz ensemble "GRIOT GALAXY". Their cd OPUS KRAMPUS on the sound aspects label earned them international acclaim. Faruq is also a published poet and was a member of the Detroit based ensemble "SPEAKING IN TONGUES". He worked with Northwoods on and off since the fall of 2000, up until his death in 2012. To read more about Faruq, click here.

Member 1976 - 2017

(Vibraphones, marimba, cheng, guitar, saz, percussion)

Founding member of Northwoods Collective. Began playing guitar at age 5. Began studying Jazz Improvisation and East Indian Music in 1976. Shortly thereafter African, Middle Eastern and Far East Musics. Formal Piano studies 1976. Formal Classical Guitar studies 1979.

Member 2001 - 2014

(Tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet)

Performed with A.A.C.M. (Chicago) and Detroit based ensemble, "GREEN/MOSLEY COMPLEX" from 1982 to 1995. some of the members included, Donald Washington, Muwata Bowden and Harrison Bankhead. studied flute from 1980 to 1984 with Elmer Nodgie, flute virtuoso with the romanian symphony orchestra who fled the country for political reasons. has been a member (and is) of several detroit based ensembles including;

"TRUE STORIES ORCHESTRA", "THE VISITORS", "DESCRIPTION", "CONSPIRACY WIND ENSEMBLE", "LATER DAYS FREEBOP ORCHESTRA" (w/Hakim Jami), and "SPEAKING IN TONGUES".

Member 2002 - 2014

(Tenor and soprano saxophones, oboe, basoon)

Has played with the 70th DIVISION ARMY RESERVE BAND for 27 years. He is currently a member of SPEAKING IN TONGUES and is one of the founding members of GRIOT GALAXY. His father AJARAMU SHELTON was Gene Ammons drummer and an early Delmark recording artist with Kalaparusha.

Metro Times Article