Avant Music News

Violinist Mark Feldman started out in Chicago playing classical music and bar gigs before moving on to the Nashville scene. He emerged in New York’s “downtown” circle with the likes of Arcado String Trio, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and composer-saxophonist John Zorn. His expressive, classically tinged technique was also sought for studio work with pop acts and film scores. For the last 10 years, he’s been integral to guitarist John Abercrombie‘s quartet and has recorded several discs as a leader. Feldman works in duo with his wife, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, and the two also co-lead a quartet. This month [June, 2010] they are co-curators at The Stone, performing in many of their projects and presenting some musical compatriots.

Mr. Coleman, 54, was born in Brooklyn Heights and raised in Cobble Hill. After earning degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music and Yale University, he returned to the city in 1979 and dove into the nascent downtown music scene, playing regularly with the men who would become its cornerstone figures: saxophonist John Zorn, trumpeter Dave Douglas and Mr. Ribot. Mr. Coleman worked often as a sideman during the 1980s, but he also formed his best-known band, Sephardic Tinge, which has released three recordings and draws on jazz, Jewish musical traditions and Latin musical styles. (The word “tinge” is a reference to the exotic jazz style known as “Spanish tinge,” which Morton coined.)