Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra Quintet

In 2005, cornetist Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Sao Paulo Underground, Mandarin Movie, Tigersmilk etc…) was approached by The Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute to put together a group that would represent the more contemporary / avant-garde side of sound in Chicago for a concert in Millennium Park’s Frank Gehry-designed concert hall. The music was conceptualized/composed in Manaus Brazil, Fontevraud, France and Chicago, and developed over more than a dozen performances of the Orchestra before it was recorded by John McEntire at his Soma Studio in Chicago. Making their NY debut, the phantasmagorical Exploding Star Orchestra Sextet, featuring Rob Mazurek (composer, cornet, electronics), Nicole Mitchell (flute), Matt Bauder (bass clarinet, tenor sax), Jason Ajemian (acoustic bass), Jason Adaseiwicz ( vibraphone) and Mike Reed (drums, percussion, saw), harnesses the the talents of this strong group of improvisors and soloists to create an organic sound that intends not to feature individual players, but is more about the projection of a certain sound pertaining to imagination and the trajectory of the sound as movement in time and space, weaving patterns and non-patterns around and inside the idea of a poem.