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Mark Helias

Bassist/Composer Mark Helias has been making innovative music since beginning his career in the mid seventies. He has enjoyed long musical associations with Edward Blackwell, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Ray Anderson, Don Cherry and Gerry Hemingway.

Eight albums of his music have been released since 1984, including Split Image, The Current Set (1987), Desert Blue (1989) and Attack The Future, (1992) Loopin' the Cool (1995), Fictionary (1998), Come Ahead Back (1998) and New School (2001) Verbs of Will (2003).

Mr. Helias had a seventeen year association with the great drummer Edward Blackwell, with whom he recorded two CDs. He has also collaborated for 26 years with Ray Anderson and Gerry Hemingway in the ensemble BassDrumBone. A prolific composer of small ensemble music he has composed music for short films and two feature films by director Jay Anania.

Helias has worked with numerous bands including those of Oliver Lake, Slickaphonics, Julius Hemphill, Marilyn Crispell, Arthur Blythe, Abbey Lincoln, Karrin Allison, Cecil Taylor, Barry Altschul, Don Byron, Mose Alison and Marty Ehrlich's "Dark Woods Ensemble". In addition to his many performances on records and CDs, Mr. Helias has produced recordings for other artists on the Gramavision, Enja, New World, Arabesque, Sound Aspects, and Avant/DIW labels.

Presently, Mark is leading and collaborating on various projects: Open/Loose with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, Solo Bass performances, The Marks Brothers with fellow bassist Mark Dresser, MOI Project-a sextet with varying personnel, Attack the Future a quartet/quintet. Mr. Helias, a graduate of Rutgers University and Yale School of Music teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School and SIM (School for Improvised Music)

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Album Review

Matthew Shipp & Mark Helias: The New Syntax

Read "The New Syntax" reviewed by John Sharpe


Pianist Matthew Shipp particularly favors the duo format. Among a discography of more than 300 entries are winning combinations with partners as varied as trumpeter Nate Wooley, violist Mat Maneri, and saxophonists Darius Jones, Rob Brown and Evan Parker. But he retains a special fondness for the bass/piano twosome, accounting for multiple meetings with longtime comrade William Parker and the current occupant of the bass chair in his trio, Michael Bisio. To that illustrious roster can also be added his ...

Album Review

Erik Friedlander: A Queens' Firefly

Read "A Queens' Firefly" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Il violoncello di Erik Friedlander, dolcissimo, introduce la melodia, poi gradualmente le altre voci si aggiungono con delicatezza, quasi con circospezione a dar forma a una ballad sognante. È la title track, il brano che apre il disco e sembrerebbe marcare in qualche modo il terreno, garantire coordinate di viaggio sicure. Succede invece che già la successiva «Match Strikes» sembra perdere il segnale e scombinare traiettorie, con il pizzicato e le svisate del violoncello, le leggere dissonanze ...

4
Album Review

Gordon Grdina: Pathways

Read "Pathways" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Unlike most of our country where we can not even share the same basic facts and truths, musicians intuitively seek out, discover and discourse in an integral, common language. Pathways revels in and celebrates that common vocabulary. Enjoying what could be the most prolific and adventurous period of his Juno Award-winning career, guitarist/oudist Gordon Grdina's sixth recording in just under a year, including the brazenly alluring Boiling Point (Astral Spirits, 2022) and the hypnotic Oddly Enough: The Music ...

9
Album Review

Erik Friedlander: A Queens' Firefly

Read "A Queens' Firefly" reviewed by Troy Dostert


When a cello is your calling card, it is only to be expected that the “chamber jazz" label will tend to follow you around--and so it has for Erik Friedlander, although that term hardly does justice to the variegated possibilities he sets in motion through his assorted projects. Having worked with a “who's who" list of cutting-edge musicians including Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Sylvie Courvoisier, John Zorn, and countless others including artists well outside the jazz world such as the ...

7
Album Review

Gordon Grdina/Mark Helias/Matthew Shipp: Pathways

Read "Pathways" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Gordon Grdina, guitarist and oud player, has cranked things up into high gear in terms of CD release productivity. This is a good thing. When artists regularly release albums--two to four or five or six a year, which was common during Blue Note Records' heyday in the late 1950s and early 60s--their artistry evolves more quickly. Grdina, at the halfway mark of 2022, has already offered up four albums for the year, an output that has lifted his artistry into ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Out of the Past

Read "Out of the Past" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


We listen to three releases from 2022, two exploring some interesting corners of jazz repertoire and one bringing back a format that thrived in the '50s. Then, just for kicks, we get a message back from the future of 1987. Does label Cellar Music contractually oblige its artists to cover a certain Benny Golson tune? Listen to experience our hard-hitting investigation. In pop matters, Mike offers pop juggernaut Adele a sandwich. Playlist Discussion of Aaron Seeber's album First ...

3
Album Review

Russ Lossing: Traces: Two Song Cycles

Read "Traces: Two Song Cycles" reviewed by Mark Corroto


There is an HBO television series, A World of Calm, which delivers thirty-minute vignettes on subjects from trees to snowfall to the vastness of the universe. The unhurried series is designed to elicit restfulness while at the same time provoking deep concentration. The same can be said of Traces, a quartet project by pianist Russ Lossing. Lossing is probably best known as a former sideman to the late drummer Paul Motian, plus he has series of recordings on ...

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Recording

Jane Ira Bloom & Mark Helias Release 'Some Kind Of Tomorrow' On Bandcamp

Jane Ira Bloom & Mark Helias Release 'Some Kind Of Tomorrow' On Bandcamp

Source: Crossover Media

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias come together to create duets discovered in the moment in a way that is rarely heard today with Some Kind of Tomorrow. The long time bandmates, separated by space and time find a way to play in real time with one another and the results are magical. Two master improvisers and composers bring listeners up-close and personal to the first spark of their imaginations at work, recording eleven duet improvisations over ...

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Contest

Enter the "Gordon Grdina and Mark Helias - No Difference" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Enter the "Gordon Grdina and Mark Helias - No Difference" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Songlines Recordings “Gordon Grdina and Mark Helias - No Difference“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on January 21st. Click here to enter the contest (Becoming a fan of Gordon Grdina at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at Songlines Recordings About No Difference Vancouver-based guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina has been involved in many ...

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Performance / Tour

Jane Ira Bloom Trio with Mark Helias & Bobby Previte at Cornelia Street Cafe on June 13th

Jane Ira Bloom Trio with Mark Helias & Bobby Previte at Cornelia Street Cafe on June 13th

Source: Michael Ricci

Soprano saxophonist, composer and former NASA artist Jane Ira Bloom brings her trio to Cornelia Street Cafe for the first time on June 13th with long-time bandmates bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. They're fresh out of the recording studio with new compositions from Bloom's latest project that jetison the band into zero-g and beyond.

Don't miss these seasoned sonic explorers as they navigate the space ways.

Cornelia St Cafe 29 Cornelia St New York, ...

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Performance / Tour

Terrence McManus/Mark Helias/Gerry Hemingway at The Stone (NYC) on January 1

Terrence McManus/Mark Helias/Gerry Hemingway at The Stone (NYC) on January 1

Source: All About Jazz


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Event

Scott Tinkler/Mark Helias Duo in NYC on September 28th

Scott Tinkler/Mark Helias Duo in NYC on September 28th

Source: All About Jazz

Sunday, September 28th at 5pm To open the new concert season at Hudson View Gardens (HVG) under the shiny new moniker Sunday Concerts at The Lounge, and making a rare appearance in New York, we have one of Down Under's foremost highly regarded jazz trumpeters--Scott Tinkler. The Aussie has played with Joe Lovano, Cindy Blackman and many others, including Downtown bass veteran Mark Helias (who has played with groups of such jazz legends as Ed Blackwell and Dewey Redman). Tinkler ...

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Performance / Tour

A Month of Wednesdays at Barbes - May 2008

A Month of Wednesdays at Barbes - May 2008

Source: All About Jazz

Concerts every Wednesday in May, 2008. Two sets per evening, 8 & 10 pm. $10 cover Wednesday May 7, 2008 8pm William Parker/Mark Helias duo 10pm Duo Mark Helias/Tim Berne A Month of Wednesdays at Barbes 376 9th St Brooklyn, NY 11215 718-965-9177 Sets at 8 & 10 pm $10 Cover Wednesday May 14, 2008 Open Loose - Mark Helias, Tom Rainey and Tony Malaby 8 & 10 pm Wednesday May 21, 2008 8pm ...

149

Recording

Jane Ira Bloom "Mental Weather" with Dawn Clement, Mark Helias, and Matt Wilson Now Available

Jane Ira Bloom "Mental Weather" with Dawn Clement, Mark Helias, and Matt Wilson Now Available

Source: All About Jazz

Award winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom has a new album on an old label. After thirty years Jane has returned to her original LP label that she began when she first started her career in New Haven, CT - Outline Records. Her electro-acoustic band brings together fellow 70's New Havenite Mark Helias on bass, drummer Matt Wilson, and Seattle new comer Dawn Clement on keyboards for Bloom's 13th and most recent recording. The band recorded Mental Weather after premiering ...

133

Performance / Tour

Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) Jeremy Steig Trio (Sat) Sam Sadigursky's Word Project (Sun) & More This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) Jeremy Steig Trio (Sat) Sam Sadigursky's Word Project (Sun) & More This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe Fri Sep 14 9:00PM & 10:30PM ONY MALABY/MARK HELIAS (Tony Malaby, saxophone;Mark Helias, bass) Sat Sep 15 9:00PM & 10:30PM JEREMY STEIG ...

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Performance / Tour

Composers Collaborative (Mon) Morrison Motel (Tue) Steve Northeast (Wed) Maria Guida (Thu) Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Composers Collaborative (Mon) Morrison Motel (Tue) Steve Northeast (Wed) Maria Guida (Thu) Tony Malaby/Mark Helias (Fri) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Sep 10 8:30PM COMPOSERS COLLABORATIVE: SERIAL UNDERGROUND Wed Sep 12 8:30PM STEVE NORTHEAST IN CONCERT Thu Sep 13 8:30PM GNU VOX: MARIA GUIDA Fri Sep ...

94

Performance / Tour

Wolfgang Schalk Qt (Fri) Mark Helias's Trio Behear (Sat) John Fischer (Sun) & More This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe

Wolfgang Schalk Qt (Fri) Mark Helias's Trio Behear (Sat) John Fischer (Sun) & More This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York212-989-9319 http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe Fri Nov 17 9:00PM & 10:30PM WOLFGANG SCHALK QUARTET (Wolfgang Schalk, guitar, composition;Helen Sung, piano;Andy McKee, bass;Ian Froman, drums) Wolfgang Schalk has garnered international acclaim as a gifted ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Gordon Grdina's The...

Attaboygirl Records
2024

buy

Truth Seeker

Self Produced
2024

buy

Stars and...

Self Produced
2023

buy

See Our Way

Outline Music / Radio Legs Music
2022

buy

Pathways

Attaboygirl Records
2022

buy

A Queens' Firefly

Skipstone Records
2022

buy

Palimpsest

From: Pathways
By Mark Helias

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