.ROB MAZUREK

First show of the New Year 2012 with the great Pharoah Sanders:

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:16:32 +0100

PHAROAH & THE UNDERGROUND
S�o Paulo & Chicago Underground
featuring PHAROAH SANDERS

Teatro Manzoni
Via Alessandro Manzoni 42
Monte Napoleone
January 15, 2012 11am
Milan, Italy

Seguici su:
Il sassofonista Pharoah Sanders, fra i principali eredi di John Coltrane, torna dopo molti anni a Milano in una formazione assolutamente originale e che include membri di gruppi particolarmente creativi e innovativi guidati dal trombettista e cornettista Rob Mazurek come Chicago Underground e S�o Paulo Underground: jazz modale, influenze afrobrasiliane, be bop, neo bop ed elettronica si incontrano per dare vita ad un quadro sonoro affascinante, contro il quale si staglia l�inconfondibile suono e l�ardente lirismo di Sanders. Un evento poetico quanto inconsueto sino ad oggi realizzatosi una volta sola, in Brasile.

sassofoni soprano e tenore
Pharoah Sanders
cornetta, live electronics
Rob Mazurek
tastiere, live electronics, vibrafono, marimba
Guilherme Granado
percussioni, cavaquinho, live electronics
Mauricio Takara
basso elettrico
Matthew Lux
batteria
Chad Taylor

Rob Mazurek's SKULL SESSIONS

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:55:21 +0100

Rob Mazurek�s Skull Sessions
2 noites de m�sicas originais compostas por Rob Mazurek

Rob Mazurek�s Skull Sessions
Apresentando membros da Exploding Star Orchestra, Starlicker, Tortoise, S�o Paulo Underground, Hurtmold, Objeto Amarelo, Black Earth Ensemble

Rob Mazurek � dire��o, cornet
Nicole Mitchell � flautas
Jason Adasiewicz � vibrafone
John Herndon � bateria
Mauricio Takara - cavaquinho, eletr�nicos, percuss�o
Guilherme Granado � teclados, samplers, percuss�o
Thomas Rohrer - saxofone, rabeca
Carlos Issa � guitarra, eletr�nicos

*12.11.11 � s�bado | 21h
*13.11.11 � domingo | 18h
SESC Pinheiros � Rua Paes Leme 195, Pinheiros; S�o Paulo / SP
� Como chegar (10min. do metr� Faria Lima)
$8 | $16 | $32
Ingressos j� � venda, em qualquer unidade SESC SP

STARLICKER HITS EUROPE OCTOBER 14-29

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:18:07 +0200

STARLICKER (Rob Mazurek, John Herndon, Jason Adasiewicz)
Hits Europe October 14-29th
Come On Out DOUBLE DEMON

13th oct: FRANCE
14th oct : st pol de leon
15th oct : crozon
16th oct : chateaulin
17th oct : plougastel
18th oct : brest university
19th oct:
20th oct: ITALY
21st oct. Cormons Jazz Wine Festival Teatro Comunale (featuring Nicole Mitchell
22nd oct. Forli (Area Sismica)
23rd oct: Firenze Sala Vanni
24th oct: Padova Cineatro Lux

25th oct: POLAND
26th: oct: Krakow Club Re
27th: oct: Wroclaw OPT
28th: oct: Poznan Nov Scena na Piętrze Estrada Poznan
29th oct: Warsaw klubpowiekszenie

Exploding Star Orchestra in Sardinia

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:11:38 +0200

ROB MAZUREK�S
EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA (ESO)

Teatro del Nuraghe Sant'Anna Arresi (CA):

02.09 "STARS HAVE SHAPES" - Exploding Star Orchestra
04.09 "TRANSGRESSION" - ESO feat. Matthew Lux
Rob Mazurek (Cornetta, Direzione), Nicole Mitchell (Flauto), Matt Bauder (Reeds), Jeb Bishop (Trombone), Carrie Biolo (Vibrafono), Jeff Kowalkowski (Piano), Matthew Lux (Basso), John Herndon (Batteria), Angelica Sanchez (Piano), Damon Locks (Voce)

Composing 3 new commissions

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:47:24 +0200

With a burst of color, comes new forms...

STARLICKER EAST/MIDWEST TOUR DATES

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:10:40 +0200

Rob Mazurek's STARLICKER featuring John Herndon and Jason Adasiewicz
Record Release Tour: East Coast/Midwest
Celebrating the new recording on Delmark Records
DOUBLE DEMON CD/LP

5.5 - NYC - Issue Project Room - 8:30-9:30
At the Old American Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Telephone: 718-330-0313

5.6 - NYC - Nublu - 9pm -11pm
62 Avenue C
Manhatten

5.7 - Philidelphia, PA- Kung Fu Necktie -
Ars Nova Presents: Starlicker 7:30 - 8:30 Tom Rainy trio 9-10
1250 north front st.

5.8 - Washington, D.C. - Red Door 8pm
D.C. Jazz Loft: DCJF preview show (presented by CapitalBop)
443 I St.

5.9 - Richmond, VA - Balliceaux -10pm
203 N. Lombardy St.

5.10 - Columbia, S.C. - 701 Center for Contemporary Art - 8pm
701 Whaley Street Columbia, SC 2920 (803) 779-4571

5.11 - Ashville, NC - Bobo Gallery - 10pm
Open Letter Music Series: 10pm
22 N Lexington Avenue

5.12 - Chatanooga, TN Barking Legs Theater 7:30 PM
1307 Dodds Avenue (423) 624-5347

5.13 - Nashville, TN - Betty's Bar and Grill - 9pm
407 49th Ave. N.

5.14 - Cincinatti, OH - Al's Loft Society/Gypsy Cafe 9pm
119 Calhoun st.

5.15 -Lakeside, Michigan- portoluz presents: Jazz On A Summers Day -4pm
The Lakeside Inn
15251 Lakeshore Road
5.16
5.17
5.18
5.19 - Ann Arbor, Michigan - 8PM
Kerrytown Music Hall
415 N. 4th Avenue
(734) 769-2999

5.20 - Detroit, Michigan - Cliff Bell's - 9:30pm - 1:30 am 3sets!!!
2030 Park Avenue
(313) 961-2543

5.21 - Dubuque, IA - 6:30PM
Dubuquefest

5.22
5.23 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Cultural Center 6:30pm
New Music Mondays Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center.
1st Set: Tatsuya Nakatani, solo percussionist (45min)
Intermission: (10 min)
2nd Set: Starlicker (60 min)

STARLICKER coming May17th, 2011

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:43:03 +0200

Starlicker Double Demon (Delmark DE 2011 CD / DF 2011 LP)
Starlicker, a trio comprised of Rob Mazurek (cornet), John Herndon (percussion), and Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), is Rob Mazurek's newest project. Deeply rooted in the Chicago and International avant garde, Jazz and rock scenes, Mazurek, Herndon and Adasiewicz expel sound with pervading energy and other-worldy delicacy. Starlicker is a unique trio, blending the origins of sound with imperative immediacy and sublime power.

Debut release "DOUBLE DEMON" on Delmark Records MAY 17, 2011

Rob Mazurek leads, composes for and performs with these critically acclaimed ensembles: Exploding Star Orchestra, Chicago Underground, S�o Paulo Underground, and Rob Mazurek's Sound Is Quintet. He has
collaborated with icons of the New Music such as Bill Dixon, Roscoe Mitchell, Yusef Lateef and Pharoah Sanders.

John Herndon creates waves of rhythm and maintains an abstract pulse that is uniquely his own, evolving his skills on the drum kit in with Exploding Star Orchestra, and iconic post rock collective Tortoise.

Jason Adasiewicz�s vibes shimmer in the ether. A Chicago mainstay and DownBeat Magazine rising star, Jason is a true original with a deep sensibility for sound vibration that can be heard through his innate and idiosyncratic approach to harmony and melody. Jason's musical history is spiked with fervent free improvisation and tight melodic rendering in such groups as Jason Adasiewicz Sun Rooms Trio, Exploding Star Orchestra, Rolldown, and Loose Assembly.

Chicago Underground/Sao Paulo Underground in Europe

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:28:11 +0200

Little Theatre Carambolage
04.04.11 | 8:00
Bolzano, Italy
Chicago Underground Duo

Cankarjev Dom
04.05.11 | 8:30
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Chicago Underground/ Sao Paulo Underground with the Mary Halvorson Trio

Bim House
04.08.11 | 8:30
Amsterdam, Netherlands
chicago Underground/Sao Paulo Underground

Musee du quai Branly
04.09.11 | 6:00
Paris, France
Chicago Underground/Sao Paulo Underground

Wels Austria
04.13.11
SP Underground

Forli Italy. Area Seismica
04.16
SP Underground

Yusef Lateef Live in Brazil feb. 12 and 13, 2011

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:02:11 +0100

Yusef Lateef will play 2 nights in Sao Paulo Brazil on february 12th and 13th at SESC Pompeia with William Parker bass, Jason Adasiewicz vibrophone, Thomas Roher rabeca, Mauricio Takara percussion, cavaquino and electronics and Rob Mazurek cornet.

StarLicker Midwest tour dates

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:51:02 +0100

Rob Mazurek's StarLicker with John Herndon and Jason Adasiewicz

Saturday January 15th at 8:00pm -1:00am
Al's Loft Society, 119 Calhoun St. Cincinnati Ohio

Sunday January 16th at 10pm-1am
The Hungry Brain, Chicago

Tuesday January 18th, 9p.m.
Monk's Kaffee Pub, Dubuque

Thursday January 20th, 8:30pm
Sugar Maple
441 East Lincoln Avenue
53207
Milwaukee, WI, US

Friday and Saturday January 21 and 22, 9pm - 1pm
Cliff Bell's 2030 Park Ave.
Detroit Michigan

Wednesday January 26th, 10 pm - 1pm
Hideout Chicago

Friday February 4
Transistor
5045 N. Clark St. Chicago 8pm - 11pm

Exploding Star Orchestra

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:40:03 +0100

ESO Live at the Green Mill Chicago
Friday Jan. 7, 9pm (3 sets)
Saturday Jan. 8, 8pm (3 sets)

New Ensemble: Starlicker Trio - in Spain November 6-11th

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 02:42:07 +0100

Starlicker, a trio comprised of Rob Mazurek (cornet), John Herndon (percussion), and Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), is Rob Mazurek's newest project. Deeply rooted in the Chicago and International avant garde and post rock scenes, Mazurek, Herndon and Adasiewicz expel sound with pervading energy and other-worldy delicacy. Starlicker is a unique trio, blending the origins of sound with imperative immediacy and sublime power.

The group will play:

11/5 - Keroxen Festival, Espacio Cultural el Tanque, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
11/6 - Casino Valverde, El Hierro, Canary Islands, Spain
11/10 - Puertas de Murcia, Cartagena Jazz Festival, Cartagena, Spain
11/11 - Teatro Caja Blanca, Malaga, Spain
11/12 - INUSUAL PROJECT: Calle de la Paloma n�5, Barcelona, Spain 21.h

Exploding Star Orchestra

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:05:33 +0200

Rob Mazurek has created a sound world that is uniquely his own, sculpting a total sound environment, by fully utilizing the beautiful instrumentation of the Exploding Star Orchestra and sounds from a variety of sources, including: rain from the Brazilian Amazon, insects at the turn of an eclipse, the hammering overdrive of bicycles in Copenhagen, stacked muted cornets run through various filters, drones built from electric eels and piano feedback, hi-frequency sinuous lines from tone generators, pitched bass guitars, and other prepared instruments. With Nicole Mitchell, Matt Bauder, Jeb Bishop, Jason Stein, Jason Adasiewicz, Greg Ward, Matthew Lux, Josh Abrams, John Herndon, Mike Reed, Jeff Kowalkowski, Carrie Biolo, words and art by Damon Locks. Also on LP; CD has one extended track not on the LP.

CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO US/CANADA TOUR

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:02:56 +0200

Wed Sep 8 Brooklyn, NY - Issue Project Room

Thu Sep 9 Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo

Fri Sep 10 Toronto, ON - The Music Gallery

Sat Sep 11 Guelph, ON - Guelph Jazz Festival

Tue Sep 14 Ann Arbor, MI - Keene Theater

Wed Sep 15 Chicago, IL - Velvet Lounge

Thu Sep 16 Detroit, MI - Cliff Bell's

Fri Sep 17 Buffalo, NY - Hall Walls Contemporary Art Center

Sat Sep 18 London, ON - LOLA Festival

Sun Sep 19 Lakeside, MI - Lillstreet Art Center at Lakeside Inn

Exploding Star Orchestra

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:45:47 +0200

Exploding Star Orchestra
31st International Jazzfestival Saalfelden
Saturday, 28th August 2010 - 09.30 pm
Tribute to Bill Dixon

Pharoah Sanders with Chicago Underground Duo/Trio and Sao Paulo Underground

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:31:32 +0200

Pharoah Sanders with Chicago Underground Duo and Trio/Sao Paulo Underground
Rob Mazurek,Chad Taylor, Matt Lux, Guilherme Granado e Maur�cio Takara.
August 21-22, 2010
SESC Pinheiros
Sao Paulo Brazil

Bill Dixon: 1925-2010 (Written by Ben Young)

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:06:03 +0200

Trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon died June 16th at his home in North Bennington, Vermont after a two-year illness. He was 84 years old.

Dixon was a revered and idiosyncratic figure in the avant-garde of Jazz music, and a creative force who strived at all times to place the music in ever more respectful circumstances. Dixon developed an often controversial profile as an outspoken and articulate defender of musicians' rights as artists, and specifically the challenges to Black music as a contender in the culture and society of the United States. His music is known for a dark, poignant, pan-tonal abstraction that remains lyrical without relying on songs or the conventions of Jazz music-making. Through five decades as a recording artist, Dixon's music has developed a loyal worldwide following.

As a musical stylist and educator, Dixon was the progenitor of an often reserved composition and playing approach that stood in contradistinction to the trends prevailing in the avant-garde in Jazz since the Sixties. He steered an influential through short-lived collective-bargaining movement in New York in 1964-65, the Jazz composers' Guild. Under Dixon's leadership, the Guild crafted a stance to preserve the artistic self-determination of Guild membership. Though he lived in Vermont for most of the last four decades, playing only occasionally in New York and in the US altogether, Dixon remained a leader and doyen for musicians of successive generations in a diaspora of alumni of his teaching and ensembles.

The legacy of Dixon's progressive organizing activities in the music often overshadow the impact of his own music-making. Dixon emerged as a composer and bandleader in what can fairly be called a second wave of the New York avant-garde. Dixon's legacy of ensemble records (1966, 2007, 2009) frames an unparalleled body of solo music for trumpet (1970-76, mainly) and a subsequent series of small ensemble recordings (1980-1995) that stand apart in texture, instrumentation, personnel, and orientation from most of the numerous records of the period by Dixon's contemporaries.

Born William Robert Dixon on October 5, 1925, he was the son of William L. Dixon and Louise Wade. His family transplanted to Harlem at the height of the depression from Nantucket, Massachusetts where Dixon was born. An early aptitude in realistic drawing led him to advanced studies in commercial art during and after high school, well before music became a serious interest. (He was also acclaimed in a group and solo shows of paintings prior to serious recognition of his music, and he was painting, drawing and creating lithographs to the end of his life). Dixon enlisted in the U.S. Army during WWII and served in Germany at the close of European theater.

Bill Dixon's deliberate study of music began at the Hartnett Conservatory of music in the mid-1940s. His journeyman years as a Jazz trumpet player in the 50s involved activity as a sideman in an array of entertainment and rehearsal projects. Daytime employment as an international civil servant at the UN Secretariat, Dixon also turned to musical advantage. He founded the United Nations Jazz Society in 1959. He worked in the same period to establish the coffee houses of Greenwich Village as a formal and legitimate venue for presenting progressive music, an early manifestation of the spirit that fed the formation of the Jazz Composers' Guild.

Bill Dixon will perhaps always be remembered for his organization of a concert series to present the new music, the October Revolution in Jazz of October 1-4, 1964, at the Cellar Cafe on west 91st Street. Though literally digested by only a handful of eyewitnesses, the concert series focused significant critical attention on the undergrowth of otherwise unrecognized creative musicians, many of whom, including Dixon, shortly would show forth as the newest voices of the new music of the Sixties.

Starting in 1966, Dixon entered a fruitful collaborative partnership with the dancer/choreographer Judith Dunn, whose background lay in the Cunningham and Judson schools. The collaboration with Dunn led Dixon to join the faculty at Bennington College where she taught in the Dance department, and Dixon pushed for the creation of the Black Music Division, a phalanx of the school's music teaching that had its own faculty, student body, and orientation. Active officially from 1975 until 1985, the program was a prototype of a kind of college-level music study that has flowered only haphazardly since, basing itself in the aesthetics and praxis of avant-garde music-making.

Dixon is remembered by many of his students as a powerful and charismatic teacher who adroitly factored student musicians at various levels of skill and development into classes and his own ensemble pieces. Within the first few years at Bennington, it became the norm for Dixon to design individual and group exercises artistically meaningful enough to become part of the compositions he developed through a term's work.

Dixon retired from teaching in 1995 and continued to perform and record, chiefly in Europe. His last years saw a dramatic increase in the frequency of his U.S. appearances, and, since 2008, in U.S.-released recordings of his works for ensembles.

Dixon is survived by his longtime partner Sharon Vogel of North Bennington, a daughter Claudia Dixon of Phoenix, Arizona and a son William R. Dixon II of New York City. He also leaves two grandchildren.

A memorial celebration of Bill Dixon's life and work will be held in New York City at a later date.

Ben Young is the author of Dixonia: A Bio-Discography of Bill Dixon (Greenwood Press, 1998).

Bill Dixon - Tapestries for a Small Orchestra

Wed, 26 May 2010 19:01:40 +0200

Icon of the New Music, trumpeter, composer and improviser Bill Dixon, debuted his newest project, Tapestries for a Small Orchestra, at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, CA last weekend.

Dixon conducted the small orchestra comprised of Rob Mazurek, Graham Haynes, Taylor Ho Bynum and Stephen Haynes (cornet and trumpets), and Glynis Lomon (cello), Michel Cote (contrabass clarinet), Ken Filiano (Double Bass) and Warren Smith (percussion). Dixon composed new material, an all-out exploration of the sonic capabilities of the trumpet, which was warmly received by a full and attentive audience of local and international connoisseurs alike.

Listen to Sound Samples or Purchase this Release at the following address:

http://firehouse12.com/firehouse12_records_release.asp?id=74177

Sao Paulo Underground @ The Empty Bottle

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:47:21 +0100

While managing and developing numerous projects in Chicago, Rob spent several years living in the Brazilian Amazon. During this time, he would occasionally travel to the thriving cultural and economic metropolis of S�o Paulo. It is here that Rob met co-founder of S�o Paulo Underground Mauricio Takara, and other members of the cities rising underground music movement.

In 2006, Mazurek and Takara released the group�s debut album Sauna: Um, Dois, Tr�s to much international acclaim, and began performing live, as a duo, in the U.S., Poland, Czech. Republic, and Brazil. The gravity of the duo�s �walls of sound� soon pulled in two additional members, Guilherme Granado and Richard 'Hollywood' Ribeiro. S�o Paulo Underground, now a quartet, includes Mazurek and three Brazilian native Paulistanos, Takara, Granando, and Ribeiro, all percussionists, thus explaining the group�s dynamic and forceful nature. Takara and Granado additionally control samplers, electronics and also add cavaquinho, and vibes and marimba to the mix, respectively.

In 2008 they released their first album as a quartet, The Principle of Intrusive Relationships, which was rated among the Top 50 Records of 2008 by The Wire. The group will release it�s third album, Tr�s Cabe�as Loucuras, in late 2010.

To describe the music the quartet creates is futile. S�o Paulo Underground embodies a fascinating musical mixture of Sun Ra-esque cosmic noise and rhythms and phrasing from samba, maracatu, rock and free jazz traditions.

Notable Festivals of 2009:
House of World Cultures - Hugh Massakela�s 70th Birthday Celebration (Berlin, Germany)
International Jazz Festival (Verona, Italy)
Festival no ar Coquetel Molotov (Recife, Brasil)

Sound Is - Debut European Tour - February 26th - March 8th

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:43:07 +0100

Rob Mazurek's Sound Is Quintet reveals a mixed pedigree--equal parts indie rock and jazz. Drummer John Herndon (Tortoise, the For Carnation) and electric bassist Matthew Lux (Isotope 217, Iron and Wine) bring an accessible pop sensibility to the driving rhythms and soaring melodies of Mazurek's sanguine tunes. Acoustic bassist Josh Abrams (Town and Country, Black Earth Ensemble) and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (Loose Assembly, Rolldown) provide sophisticated harmonies and colorful textures befitting their jazz lineage.

Feb 26 Show - Padova, Italy - Cinema Teatro Torresino 21:00
Feb 27 Show - Forli, Italy - Area Sismica - 22:30
Feb 28 Show - Rome, Italy - Sala Teatro Studio - 21:00
Mar 3 Show - Lugano, Switzerland - Studio 2 RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera -20:30
Mar 4 Show - Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik Kulturzentrum - 20:30
Mar 5, Show - Warsaw, Poland - Powiekszenie
Mar 6 Show - Poznan, Poland - Estrada Pozanska - 20:30
Mar 7 Show - Wroclaw, Poland - OPT

The guys are back in Chicago, playing at the Hungry Brain on April 25th, 2010.