ROB MAZUREK
Genres: Eclectic Fusion, Jazz Related Improv, Composition, Avant-Garde Jazz, 21st Century Modern, Third Stream, Progressive Big Band, Post Bop • United States

Working within a multitude of stylistic contexts, electro-acoustic composer/cornetist Rob Mazurek has helped redefine the aesthetic boundaries of artistic expression for well over a decade. Born in 1965 in Jersey City, NJ, Mazurek rose to prominence in the fertile mid-1990s Chicago jazz scene, quickly venturing beyond the traditional tenets of the idiom to become one of the most compelling improvising composers of his generation. Mazurek first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, eventually working with other Chicago masters like Kenny Prince, Robert Barry, Jodie Christian, Lin Halliday, and Earma Thompson. But it is Mazurek's earliest pursuit of musical freedom that is his most enduring; formed in 1996 (with guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Chad Taylor), the longstanding Chicago Underground Collective continues to be one of his most versatile units, ranging in size from duo, trio and quartet to orchestra. The Collective's vanguard sensibility earned Mazurek the read more...