What a pleasure and big honor it was to be invited to teach at the International Jazz Platform summer academy in Łódź, Poland last week! Thanks a lot to Karolina Juzwa for inviting me and for organizing all of this beautiful stuff, and to the incredible talented participants and amazing teachers that gave so much inspiration throughout the week! New friendships and collaborations was made! Its weird times all around the globe and we need this more than ever right now!!!! Thank you everyone!! Music music music!!!
Multidisciplinary artist, musician, composer, and improviser, Rob Mazurek, brings three of the world’s finest creative musicians to Marfa, TX from August 10-12, 2018 for a series of solo performances and the premiere of Mazurek’s two-part suite Desert Encrypts: Volume 1.
Desert Encrypts: Volume 1, is a two-part suite based on observations from the desert in and around Marfa, TX. It also explores Mazurek’s ongoing fascination with social, psychological, and physiological structures, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial. The composition includes written music and graphic scores for improvisation. The original graphic scores will be on display at Marfa Book Company at the Hotel Saint George.
Mazurek has been reshaping modern music’s cutting edge for the past three decades. He is co-leader (with Chad Taylor) of the Chicago Underground collective, and director of Exploding Star Orchestra. His compositions utilize traditional, graphic and electro-acoustic techniques and strategies, which have consistently pushed the limits of modern music. A recent All About Jazz review remarks “Rob Mazurek has spent years exploring less tangible parts of the universe, seldom seen—or heard—by others. In the process he has laid claim to a space of his own.”
Kris Davis was named 2017 Rising Star Pianist and 2018 Rising Star Jazz Artist in Downbeat. She has been described by Jason Moran in Art Forum as “an honorary descendant of Cecil Taylor.” Her latest recording, Octopus, on her own Pyroclastic label, pairs her with Craig Taborn and is an astonishing testimony to her fierce individuality and lyrical sensitivity.
Ingebrigt Håker Flatten is a muscular player whose tone and attack on the bass run the gamut from Paul Chambers to Buschi Niebergall. Flaten’s sense of both openness and control serves ensembles as diverse as The Thing, Free Fall, Atomic, Scorch Trio, and the Kornstad/Håker Flaten Duo. His group, Young Mothers, recently garnered praise for their new release, Morose, from Glide Magazine: “the band reels back and forth from moments of complete musical chaos to sonic beauty.”
Percussionist Chad Taylor has been redefining the way drums can be approached for over twenty years. The Wire remarks that Taylor’s “deftness, imagination and formidable technical skill make his playing a joy to listen to.” All About Jazz describes his latest solo recording, Myths and Morals, as “a lively dialogue with the vibrant sounds of the world. The music acknowledges the masters that have been here before while searching for new sounds in a language that is both personal and universal.” Sponsored by the City of Marfa, Marfa Book Company, Hotel Saint George, Crowley Theater, Bar Nadar, Harmonipan, and Astral Spirits.
