Rob Mazurek / Chad Taylor
Rob Mazurek was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1965, and played trumpet and cornet in high school. After high school he attended the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and began playing gigs with local jazz musicians.
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 and Taylor continued to form groups under the Chicago Underground umbrella, performing as the Chicago Underground Duo, Chicago Underground Trio and Chicago Underground Quartet.
Jeff Parker is an American guitarist and composer based in Los Angeles. Parker is best known as an experimental musician, working with jazz, electronic, rock, and improvisational groups.
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM is devoted "to nurturing, performing, and recording serious, original music," according to its charter. It supports and encourages jazz performers, composers and educators. Although founded in the jazz tradition, the group's outreach and influence has, according to Larry Blumenfeld, "touched nearly all corners of modern music."
Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist.
Joseph Jarman was an American jazz musician, composer, and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
TNT is the third studio album by American post-rock band Tortoise, released in 1998 by Thrill Jockey. After Jeff Parker joined the band in 1996, Tortoise recorded TNT over the course of a year with drummer John McEntire acting as producer, editor and mixing. Taking influence from their remix material of the 1990s, the band recorded the album using hard disk technology in a "forward-then-back" approach, with members individually adding parts to tracks at different stages until the tracks were completed. As with previous albums, the band members also shared instrumental roles.
Matana Roberts is an American sound experimentalist, visual artist, jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, composer and improviser based in New York City. She has previously been an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The Jazz Journalists Association selected Roberts as a finalist nominee for the 2008 "Up and Coming Musician of the Year" award.
Malachi Favors was an American jazz bassist who played with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Sam Prekop is an American rock/pop musician in the band The Sea and Cake. He also has released four solo albums.
Kahil El'Zabar is a jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer. He regularly records for Delmark Records. He attended Lake Forest College and joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the early 1970s, and became its chairman in 1975. During the 1970s, he formed the musical groups Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, both of which remain active. Musicians with whom Kahil EL'Zabar has collaborated include Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Simon, Pharoah Sanders, and Billy Bang. In 2017 the film "Be Known - The Mystery of Kahil El Zabar" by filmmaker Dwayne Johnson-Cochran was released. The documentary follows El' Zabar and band on their 2007 Black History Month tour. The film is currently available on Amazon Prime.
Andrew Lamb is a jazz saxophonist and flautist. Lamb was raised in Chicago and South Jamaica, Queens. Having studied with AACM charter member Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Lamb came into New York City's avant-garde community during the 1970s, becoming an active presence in the Bedford-Stuyvesant arts world and winning a Brooklyn Arts Council grant.
Pit Er Pat is an Experimental band from Chicago Illinois. They formed in 2002 as the trio of Fay Davis-Jeffers on keyboard and vocals, former founding member of Alkaline Trio Rob Doran on bass, and Butchy Fuego on drums. Their sound is very atmospheric and has a dark ambience that is similar to other instrumental avant-garde groups. Much of the group's offerings are rhythmically complex as well.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Douglas McCombs plays bass and guitar with the instrumental rock band Tortoise and leads the instrumental band Brokeback. He is also the longtime bassist for the rock band Eleventh Dream Day. In 1997, he formed Pullman with Bundy K. Brown, Chris Brokaw, and Curtis Harvey, with whom he released two albums. In May 2018, McCombs replaced Eric Claridge as the touring bassist with Chicago jazz-pop outfit The Sea and Cake.
Delmark Records is the oldest American jazz and blues independent record label. It was founded in 1958 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the Delmar imprint.
Roscoe Mitchell Quartet is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell recorded in 1975 and released on the Canadian Sackville label.
Back at the Velvet Lounge is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson, which was recorded in 2002 and released on Delmark. This second installment on Bob Koester's label of live recordings made at Fred's own club, the Velvet Lounge, features the young trumpeter Maurice Brown making his first appearance on CD, Chicago Underground's guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Chad Taylor, and bassists Tatsu Aoki and Harrison Bankhead.
Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist.
Frank Rosaly is a Puerto Rican American drummer, composer, and sound designer associated with a transparent compositional approach to drumming across various styles of music including jazz, improvisation, rock and experimental music. Rosaly also composes for film.
