| Rob Mazurek | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 46–47) |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, experimental |
| Instruments | Cornet |
| Years active | 1990?-present |
| Associated acts | Isotope 217 Chicago Underground Tigersmilk Mandarin Movie |
| Website | www.robmazurek.com |
Rob Mazurek (born 1965) is an American composer, jazz musician, and visual artist originally from Chicago, Illinois. Mazurek now resides in São Paulo Brazil.
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Mazurek was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1965, and played trumpet and cornet in high school in Naperville, Illinois. After high school he attended the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and began playing gigs with local jazz musicians. In the early 1990s, he played hard bop with his first quartet, featuring drummer George Fludas, bassist John Webber, and pianist Randolph Tressler. This troupe booked an extended set of gigs in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Scottish label Hep Records released three albums of theirs, in 1994, 1995, and 1997.[1]
In 1996, Mazurek founded a workshop at Chicago jazz club The Green Mill called Chicago Underground for the performance of avant-garde, improvisatory jazz. By 1998, a new ensemble had formed around this idea, featuring guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, bassist Noel Kupersmith, and trombonist Sara Smith. As the Chicago Underground Orchestra, this ensemble released several albums on Chicago's Delmark Records. Mazurek continued to form groups under the Chicago Underground umbrella, performing as the Chicago Underground Duo and Chicago Underground Quartet.[1]
By then a well-known figure on the Chicago jazz scene, Mazurek collaborated with a number of jazz and experimental rock artists, performing on albums by Tortoise, Sam Prekop, Gastr del Sol, Stereolab, and Brokeback. Out of these experiments was born the experimental collaboration Isotope 217. Mazurek would continue experimenting with his laptop-based project Orton Socket.[1] Mazurek has released several albums on Chicago's Thrill Jockey records in the 2000s, including some under the Chicago Underground designation.
Mazurek also paints and experiments with multimedia art.[2] In addition to touring extensively worldwide as a musician, he has had works exhibited at art galleries such as Heaven Gallery in Chicago, Naked Duck Gallery in New York, and Gantner Multi-Media Center in France.[3]
In March 2003 Mazurek participated in the SUB/SAS workshop in Palermo, Italy. A workshop exploring the means of a contemporary trend of interdisciplinary relationships between artists, sound artists, landscape designers and architects. Through this group he has exhibited paintings-videos-sound works in Rome, Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris and Palermo and continues his collaboration with the group with exhibitions/workshops planned in 2005 for Helsinki, Barcelona and Toronto.
In 2005 Mazurek was awarded the prestigious grant/residency at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud in France where he developed a multi-media piece based on the environment of the Abbaye. The piece (which includes digital manipulation of piano compositions, paintings, digital manipulation of paintings, video and text) was presented in May 2005 as part of the Abbaye's "Creation Week".
On August 11, 2005 Mazurek debuted his new large ensemble "Exploding Star Orchestra", at Millennium Park in Chicago. The group includes some of the most powerful and interesting players in Chicago today.
In 2006 he introduced the São Paulo Underground (Aesthetics Records/Submarine Records/Headz Japan), touring worldwide and became a member of Jason Ajemian's new ensemble "Day Dream New Life Styles" featuring Tony Mallaby, Jeff Parker, and Chad Taylor.
January 2007 saw the debut release of his EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA "We Are All From Somewhere Else".
In April 2007 he celebrated the release of a DVD/CD release of the Chicago Underground Trio entitled "Chronicle", which features the film work of Raymond Salvatore Harmon.
In June 2007, Tigersmilk will release its third cd "Android Love Cry" with new digital prints by Mazurek.
Currently he is working on new solo cornet/music concrete works based on material from the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud residency, that will be released on Adluna Records fall of 2007 and new sound/visual works that will be featured on the Bottrop-Boy label in winter 2008.
In June 2007 he was invited to the Dieppe Bienale in Normandy France to present new sound and visual works.
On September 2, 2007 his group Exploding Star Orchestra performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival with the great Bill Dixon, performing a new composition by Bill Dixon and a new composition by Mazurek utilizing his first experiments in the world of video score.[3]