Joseph Jarman (flute alto saxophone, Turkish hand drum, Vietnamese oboe, wind chimes) Leroy Jenkins ( violin, viola) Myra Melford (piano, harmonium)	Joseph Jarman (AACM founder and member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, woodwinds player, poet, and percussionist), Leroy Jenkins (AACM member, composer, and the premier violinist-violist in new music/jazz) and Melford came together in 1997 to form Equal Interest. All three of these musicians are imaginative and skilled composer/improvisers; each of them has developed a distinctly personal style embracing a broad range of structures, textures, and moods, and all three are steeped in jazz and blues traditions as well as world folk musics. The self-titled debut recording by thiss dynamic-yet-intimate creative collective was released by OmniTone in 2000. "...interaction between the three is never less than extraordinary. This is music you can hear breathing..music that defies categorization beyond the beauty and humanity that suffuse all of it." (James Hale, Down Beat)