"Adam Lane - Composer/Bassist

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By combining a disparate set of influences into a unique improvisational voice, Adam Lane has become recognized as one of the most original creative voices in contemporary jazz. His 2006 recording New Magical Kingdom, was recently featured in the Penguin Jazz Guide 1001 Best Records Ever Made, and his most recent recording, Ashcan Ranting received a myriad of critical praise including four stars in Downbeat.

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His current projects include his Full Throttle Orchestra, a nine piece ensemble formed to realize his extended jazz orchestral compositions, The Adam Lane Trio, featuring legendary reedist Vinny Golia, Four Corners, a co-lead ensemble with reedist Ken Vandermark, and an ongoing solo project that combines unique processed double bass improvisations with Lane's original story telling. As a sideman he has performed with an eclectic mix of musicians, from tenor great John Tchicai, to alto iconoclast Richard Tabnik, to rock legend Tom Waits. Lane's compositions have been praised for their audacity and originality.

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Sam Prestiani of Jazziz says of Lane's writing: "His confidence and confrontational prowess as well as his abiding sense of lyricism and heavy-groove power place him in the lineage of forward-jazz adventurism." And Bill Meyer writes in Downbeat, "Lane's music is genuine, accessible, fun. The music is deeply in touch with the essential pleasures of earwig-worthy tunes, fat bluesy grooves, and sheer tonal beauty." (Downbeat Jan 2011)

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Lane studied composition at Wesleyan University with Anthony Braxton, and at California Institute of the Arts with Wadada Leo Smith. In 1996 he received a Paternings Scholarship for study at the Darmstadt School for New Music where he studied double bass with Steffano Scodanibbio, and attended master classes in composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen."

-Adam Lane Website (http://adamlane.org/biography.html)
1/27/2025

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"Over the past decade, Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of African-American music. "Jones' concept is proudly his own," writes Philip Clark in The Wire. [His music] poses big questions about the relationship between the African-American tradition of spirituals, blues and gospel, and now." With New York City as his base since 2005, Jones has brought his unique sound to dozens of cities around the United States, Canada and Europe.

Jones early on established himself as a powerful voice in the jazz community and was nominated in 2013 for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, and for Up & Coming Artist of the Year two years in a row for the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. Jones was one of Jazz Times' Debut Artists of the Year for 2009 and was featured in the Wall Street Journal in 2011. In 2012 he was featured in DownBeat and on WBGO's The Checkout. Jones' 2012 release, Book of Mæ'bul (Another Kind of Sunrise) was listed among NPR's Best Top 10 Jazz Albums of that year. "Jones speaks through his alto in an original and unforced language," writes DownBeat's Joe Tangari. Critics have called him "robustly creative" (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and "one of NYC's most incisive and passionate saxists" (Time Out New York). AllAboutJazz.com reviewer Troy Collins writes, "Jones has set the stage for a winning series of albums designed to document his rise as one of the most impressive and unique voices of our time."

More recently The New York Times named Jones among the Best Live Jazz Performances of 2017 for his Vision Festival performance with Farmers by Nature.

Jones has collaborated with artists including Gerald Cleaver, Oliver Lake, William Parker, Craig Taborn, Jason Moran, Georgia Ann Muldrow, Trevor Dunn, Eric Revis, Mike Reed, Nasheet Waits, Orrin Evans, Branford Marsalis, Kris Davis, Vijay Iyer, Marshall Allen, Dave Burrell, James Carter, Harriet Tubman, JD Allen, Tyshawn Sorey, Andrew Cyrille, Yo La Tengo, Chad Taylor, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith, Steve Lehman, Jim Black, Sun Ra Arkestra, Shazhad Ismaily, Fay Victor, Cooper-Moore, Imani Uzuri, Matthew Shipp and many more.

Signed to AUM Fidelity records in 2009, Jones has released a string of diverse recordings which comprise his Man'ish Boy Epic, featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism.

In 2008 Jones was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette, which he used to launch his chamber ensemble, the Elizabeth-Caroline Unit, a project dedicated to new works for voice. Roulette continued their support for Darius' work through a Jerome Foundation Commission, and he was a Jerome Artist-in-Residence when the Elizabeth-Caroline Unit premiered the first section of The Oversoul Manual, in the Spring of 2014. Jones made his compositional debut at Carnegie Hall with the same work in October of 2014. In March 2018, Jones presented a new composition entitled LawNOrder a dramatic commentary on social justice and American politics, at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

In 2013, Jones was awarded the French-American Jazz Exchange grant for a collaboration with French vocalist Emilie Lesbros.

Jones graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelors in Jazz Studies in 2003, earning a Master's Degree in Jazz Performance/Composition from New York University in 2008. He also taught New Music Improvisation there for a year as an adjunct professor. Jones taught saxophone and improvisation at Columbia University in 2017.

Of note, Jones was featured in the Wall Street Journal and BBC's Jazz on 3 in 2011. In 2012 he was featured in the New York City Jazz Record, JazzTimes.com, the Village Voice Blog, DownBeat, and on WBGO's The Checkout. Darius was featured on the cover of Portuguese magazine, Jazz.pt in 2012, and on the cover of Italian magazine, Jazz Colours, in 2013. Darius' 2012 release, Book of Mæ'bul (Another Kind of Sunrise) was listed among NPR's Best Top 10 Jazz Albums of that year."

-Darius Jones Website (http://www.dariusjonesmusic.com/read.html)
1/27/2025

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"Vijay Anderson is a freelance drummer, bandleader, composer, and teacher who recently relocated to Brooklyn, New York. He has performed and recorded with Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalists Lynn Johnston and Vinny Golia; Bay Area composers/performers Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Graham Connah, Darren Johnston, Smith Dobson V, Lisa Mezzacappa, Aaron Bennett, Ava Mendoza, Hafez Modirzadeh and saxophonist/composer Marco Eneidi. He has worked extensively with bass player/composer Adam Lane as part of Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra, the Adam Lane Trio featuring Vinny Golia, and Adam Lane's Blue Spirit Band featuring Avram Fefer and Roy Campbell. He holds a MFA in music performance from Mills College and a BA in music performance from S.F. State.Anderson has composed and performed original scores for filmmakers Jeff Kao and Tim Hicks as well as for projects by the Facing East Dance Company. Other notable career highlights include performing with Connie Crothers, Virg Dzurinko, Daniel Carter, Roberto Miranda, Bobby Bradford, William Roper, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Darius Jones, Prasant Radhakrishnan, Paul Smoker, John Tchicai, Wadada Leo Smith, Herb Robertson, Steve Swell, Kenny Wessel, Ken Filiano, Garrison Fewell, Karl Berger's Stone Workshop, Steve Adams, Bishop Norman Williams, BJ Papa, the Bill Horvitz Expanded Band, Phillip Johnston, Joel Forrester, Mike Watt, Chuck Dukowski, and Slovenly Jr. (subbing for Rob Holzman).Anderson has performed at many venues in the Bay Area and beyond, including: Yoshi's, the Stone, Bruno's, Café Claude, the Comstock Saloon, Barbes, the Luggage Store, New Langton Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, the Bop Shop, the Hammer Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, the De Young Museum, and Intersection for the Arts. He also has performed at many festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Fillmore Jazz Festival, the San Francisco Alternative Music Festival, the North Beach Jazz Festival, Cimpfest 2011 in Villach, Austria, the Novara Jazz Festival 2012 in Novara, Italy, The 2013 VDU Jazz Connections Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania, The San Francisco Jazz Festival in 2014, and the Outsound Music Festival in 2016 and 2017.Anderson's recorded work can be found on Cadence Jazz Records, Clean Feed, CIMP, Pax Recordings, Edgetone, Evander Music, 3 Beads of Sweat, NotTwo, NineWinds, and NoBusiness Records. He additionally leads two of his own bands, the Vijay Anderson Quartet, and the Touch and Go Sextet. His first record under his own name, entitled "Hard Boiled Wonderland" was released in August 2010 on Nottwo Records. In 2012, Anderson received a travel grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation to take the Touch and Go Sextet to the Novara Jazz Festival 2012 in Novara, Italy. A recording of this concert was released in 2014 on the NineWinds Label.Recent work includes performing with Sheldon Brown's Blood of the Air, as well as various groups with saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh, including a quartet with bassist Mark Dresser and pianist/composer Diane Moser. Other recent projects include the Silverscreen Sextet involving luminaries from Los Angeles creative music scene as well the Adam Lane Trio featuring alto saxophonist Nick Lyons which toured the Russian Federation in 2017."-Vijay Anderson Website (http://vijayanderson.com/bio/)
1/27/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.