The Marrow is:
Gord Grdina (Vancouver) – Guitar & Oud
Mark Helias (New York) – Bass
Hank Roberts (New York) – Cello
Hamin Honari (Montreal/Iran) – Persian Percussion
Virtuoso Vancouver oud player Grdina’s new middle eastern/avant jazz ensemble is a quartet featuring illustrious New York collaborators Mark Helias (bass) Hank Roberts (cello) and Hamin Honari on Persian percussion. Grdina’s compositions are mostly based on classical Arabic maqam and Persian dastgah traditions but are performed in a creative jazz context where improvised group interplay is as important as solos and expanded tonality is welcomed. The music is intricate and often delicate with a deep connection to the past while looking forward. It defies categorization but remains comfortably engaging. The compositions cover a lot of ground. There are dark, brooding but frequently exciting excursions on middle eastern modes and vamps, more contrapuntally through-composed works, and slow, song-like explorations for strings without percussion. One piece is a vibrant, foot-tapping tribute to west African guitarist Boubacar Traore. This project extends Grdina’s previous fusions involving jazz improvisation and middle eastern music, from Think Like the Waves to East Van Strings and currently his 10-piece band Haram, while also drawing to some extent on his more avant jazz and guitar-based New York projects No Difference (featuring Helias) and Inroads (all on Songlines). But as Grdina points out, The oud has become about 50 per cent of my music…In the last few years it’s starting to feel like the oud playing and the guitar playing are turning into the same thing…It feels like jazz is looking outwards…Indian music, Iraqi music, Arabic stuff, Persian music: they’re all giving jazz another viewpoint on improvising.
ARTIST BIOS
Gordon Grdina – Oud
Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award winning oud/guitarist whose career has spanned
continents, decades and constant genre exploration throughout avant-garde jazz,
free form improvisation, contemporary indie rock and classical Persian and Arabic.
His singular approach to the instruments have earned him recognition from the
highest ranks of the jazz/improv world.
Mark Helias – Bass
Mark Helias is a renowned bassist and composer who has performed throughout
the world for more than three decades. After his studies at Rutgers University (B.A.
1974) and The Yale School of Music (M.M. 1976), he began his international career
in the Anthony Braxton Quartet. Up to the present time he has performed with a
panoply of world class artists including: Marcel Khalife, Andrew Cyrille, Don Cherry, among many others.
He has composed music for two feature films as well as chamber pieces and works for large ensemble and big band.
Hank Roberts – Cello
Hank Roberts made his name in the 1980s legendary New York Downtown scene.
Faced with a dearth of improvisational cellist mentors or peers, he carved his own
path through that fertile ground alongside such frequent collaborators as Bill Frisell,
Tim Berne, Marc Ribot and John Zorn, finding a second home at the famed Knitting
Factory, leading and recording with his own groups, ‘Birds of Prey, ‘Black Pastels’,
‘Little Motor People’ and co-founding ‘Miniature’ with Tim Berne and Joey Baron,
and the ‘Arcado String Trio’ with Mark Feldman and Mark Dresser.
The list of names with whom Roberts has shared stages or recording studios with
includes Gavin Friday (with the members of U2), Sting, Jeff Buckley, David Sanborn,
Mamadou Diabate, Andy Summers, Gary Burton, Marty Ehrlich, Arto Lindsey, Gerry
Hemingway, Don Byron, and Julius Hemphill.
Hamin Honari – Tombak, Daf
Hamin Honari has focused on adapting his drumming style and technique to
accommodate many different genres of music. He has toured as a member of the
Dastan Ensemble, one of Iran’s most well-known Persian Classical music ensembles
and has performed with many of Iran’s greatest musicians and singers. He currently
lives in Vancouver, BC where he teaches Persian drumming and is the Artistic
Director of Vancouver’s Big World Band; an intercultural ensemble which features
some of Canada’s best World Musicians.