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Mara Rosenbloom

Pianist, composer, & bandleader Mara Rosenbloom has been called “a whole-hearted poet of the piano,” – she is a builder & a synthesist; a fiercely lyrical composer & improviser (All About Jazz).

Originally from Wisconsin, Rosenbloom has spent the past decade in New York City, creating a distinctive body of work and establishing herself as a vibrant and respected part of the city’s diverse network of jazz & improvised music communities. Following the release of Prairie Burn (Fresh Sound/New Talent), Rosenbloom’s debut trio release with bassist Sean Conly & drummer Chad Taylor, The New York Times cast a spotlight on Rosenbloom, heralding Prairie Burn as a “…a trio recording of bristling provocation and full-bore group improvising…her strongest statement as a bandleader and her most dauntless effort as a pianist.” The album received a rare 4.5 stars from Downbeat Magazine, earning it a spot on the Magazine’s Best Albums of 2017 list. New York Music Daily praised the album as “[Rosenbloom's] quantum leap into greatness. An absolutely feral, largely improvisational suite...unbridled ferocity and a remarkable chemistry.” The following May, the trio made their Jazz at Lincoln Center debut, performing to a sold out house at Dizzy’s Jazz Club Coca-Cola. The following January, the group made a splash at New York City’s Winter Jazzfest, performing to a packed house, and receiving critical acclaim from Nate Chinen at WBGO, and The New York City Jazz Record.

This past year, Rosenbloom has been debuting a new ensemble, Flyways, featuring 2019 Van Lier Fellowship winner Anais Maviel (voice & surdo drum) & acclaimed bassist Rashaan Carter (Wallace Roney, Marc Carey, Cindy Blackman). The group's premier work, "I know what I dreamed" sets the text of one of Adrienne Rich's 21 Love Poems to melody, and extends it into a set length work, balancing composed narrative within a dynamic level of improvisation.

Prior to her work with both trios, Rosenbloom lead her long-running quartet with alto saxophonist Darius Jones, bassist Sean Conly, and drummer Nick Anderson - embarking on two US tours, performing monthly in New York, and releasing two albums to critical acclaim. Currently, in addition to her own projects, Rosenbloom recently recorded the music of William Parker on a new album of his compositions to be released Spring, 2019 & performed his tribute Blue Lime Light for Cecil Taylor, at Taylor's Memorial Concert in 2018. Rosenbloom is also a member of Iconoclast American Jazz Drummer William Hooker's Quartet MOON (feat: Jon Irabagon), Dawn Drake's global funk ensemble ZapOte, which just returned from a 10 day International US Embassy Tour of Belize (performing workshops for children with special needs, community concerts, and outreach & exchange with local musicians), and continues to perform with a variety of musicians across genres, including Cooper-Moore, William Parker, Nioka Workman, Sam Newsome, Michael Wimberly, Vinny Golia, Ken Filiano, Ava Mendoza, Rosa Avila, Gerald Cleaver, Ras Moshe, Omar Tamez, Jeff Davis, Billy Mintz, Daniel Carter, and Anais Maviel. Her mentors at the piano include the incomparable Cooper-Moore, and the late great Connie Crothers.

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27
Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projects—one dating back ten years—with some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to “all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...

5
Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


L'attività musicale di William Parker è stata copiosamente documentata da circa centocinquanta dischi, che spaziano in un caleidocopio di gruppi fondati dallo stesso contrabbassista, formazioni cooperative, omaggi, collaborazioni. Ma nessun singolo lavoro, fino a questo momento, aveva focalizzato l'attenzione su un ventaglio di ispirazioni così ampio e completo come si fa ora nei dieci CD del cofanetto The Music of William Parker—Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World. In questo lavoro monumentale, che viene ...

7
Album Review

Mara Rosenbloom Trio: Prairie Burn

Read "Prairie Burn" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


When thought outpaces action in music, the results are often staid and forgettable. Conversely, when thinking is suppressed in favor of ceaseless activity, the end results are often turbid, shambolic, and largely unlistenable. It's the power struggle between the two, along with the personalities controlling that struggle, that help jazz to expand, evolve, explore, and excite. Count pianist Mara Rosenbloom as one of those singular personalities pushing, probing, and exerting influence on the balance between idea and execution.

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Interview

Mara Rosenbloom, Darius Jones, Brian Drye: Brooklyn Artist Snapshot

Read "Mara Rosenbloom, Darius Jones, Brian Drye: Brooklyn Artist Snapshot" reviewed by Seton Hawkins


To even the casual observer, Brooklyn has incubated an extraordinary new generation of talented jazz artists. While the Borough is certainly renowned for a vibrant jazz community, and indeed has been since the mid-twentieth century, this latest cohort of artists is nevertheless worthy of a particular spotlight, not only for being a gathering of tremendous performers and composers, but also in many cases for emerging as entrepreneurs who have successfully challenged the difficult economics of jazz with creative solutions.

3
Album Review

Mara Rosenbloom Quartet: Songs from the Ground

Read "Songs from the Ground" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Pianist Mara Rosenbloom frames her second album on personal recollections encapsulating childhood, family matters, and challenging situations. Therefore, the idealization for this outing is not merely steeped within an austere band approach. Taken from this perspective, her musicality embeds or perhaps synchronizes a form of melodic goodness with a traumatic periphery. Rosenbloom's brand of modern jazz is not all about rummaging through difficult time signatures or complex geometrical theme-building episodes. It's more focused on the construction of ...

290
Album Review

Mara Rosenbloom Quartet: School of Fish

Read "School of Fish" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


Music, at its best, is about seeing and feeling things that are well-known in a new way, making them pleasing to the intellect and heart. It's about placing familiar things in an unfamiliar context.

Taking the cover to Wisconsin-born pianist Mara Rosenbloom's album as an example, School of Fish is adorned by a fish painted on woodwork with the eye of the fish being a part of the wood's natural texture. Here, an aquatic animal is taken out of its ...

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"Révélation!" - Noadya Arnoux, Jazz Magazine, France

"A prodigiously expressive and immediate pianist...stunning" - Mel Minter, Speaking Musically

“…a trio recording of bristling provocation and full-bore group improvising…her strongest statement as a bandleader and her most dauntless effort as a pianist.” - GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“ONE OF THE TEN BEST JAZZ ALBUMS OF THE YEAR!” - LUCIDCULTURE

****4 ½ STARS! - DOWNBEAT

"The [Mara Rosenbloom] trio achieves an elusive chemistry and degree of spontaneous interaction that transcends mental boundaries. The compositions, especially the four-part title suite, ripple, surge, and shimmer with ruminative rigor. Rosenbloom unleashes a burnished, smoldering lyric quality on pieces that eschew linear structuring devices in favor of natural, flowing developments, her deft rhythm section supporting every twist and curve." PETER MARGASAK, THE CHICAGO READER

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Migration of Silence...

Centering Records / AUM Fidelity
2021

buy

Mara Rosenbloom...

Fresh Sound Records
2020

buy

The Mara Rosenbloom...

Fresh Sound Records
2020

buy

Prairie Burn

Fresh Sound Records
2016

buy

Songs from the Ground

Fresh Sound Records
2013

buy

School of Fish

Self Produced
2009

buy

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