Home » Member Page
Rob Mazurek
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist/abstractivist, with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago, and then Brazil. He curre
About Me
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary
artist/abstractivist, with a focus on
electro-acoustic composition,
improvisation, performance, painting,
sculpture, video, film and installation,
who spent much of his creative life in
Chicago, and then Brazil. He currently
lives and works in Marfa Texas with his
wife Britt Mazurek.
Mazurek was born in 1965 in Jersey
City, New Jersey. In 1975 he moved with
his family to a suburb of Chicago where
he started playing cornet at the age of
10. A confrontation with the music of
Sun Ra at the age of 16 at the Chicago
Jazz Festival in 1981 had inspired
Mazurek to want to become a serious
composer performer. He first learned
the foundations of improvised music
while studying jazz theory and practice
with David Bloom at the Bloom School
of Jazz in Chicago, at the same time
studying composition with Ralph
Dodds (Roosevelt University), Sheldon
Atovsky (Depaul University), Easley
Blackwood (University of Chicago) and
Ken Prince (Chicago). He began working
with Chicago musicians Kenny Prince,
Robert Barry, Jodie Christian, Lin
Halliday, John Webber, George Fludas,
Eric Alexander, Randy Tressler, Dennis
Carol and Earma Thompson and many
others in the mid 80’s-early 90’s.
In the early 90’s Mazurek released his
first recording “Man Facing East” on the
HEP records label featuring George
Fludas, John Webber and Randolph
Tressler, and released 2 more records
with the addition of Eric Alexander. In
1993 he started painting in earnest
after being stunned by a Mark Rothko
painting at the Art Institute of Chicago
and soon after created work that would
eventually be used for the record
covers for Chicago Underground Duo’s
seminal work Synesthesia, Axis and
Alignment and Isotope 217’s split
remix. In1994, Mazurek formed the
Chicago Underground Collective with
guitarist Jeff Parker with a cast of
revolving players including Robert
Barry and Joshua Abrams, before
settling on the lineup that would
become the first release on Delmark
Records “Playground” which features
Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor, Chris Lopes,
Sara Smith, Chad Taylor, a unit that
ranges in size from duo to orchestra.
The Underground’s first release on
Delmark Records “Playground” was
released with critical attention.
Isotope 217 (conceived by Jeff Parker)
was consequently born at this time and
also began his fascination with
incorporating electronics/computer
music into his compositions and
improvisations. The mid 90’s proved to
be a fertile time for many musicians
and artists, with the Chicago
Underground and Isotope 2017
creating and releasing 6 full length
records for Delmark and Thrill Jockey
records.
In 2000 Mazurek moved to Manaus
Brazil. While living in Brazil from 2000
to 2007, Mazurek constructed exotic
soundscapes from the sounds of the
Amazonian rain forest, including
electric eels recorded at INPA research
laboratory in Manaus and audio culled
from storm systems on the outskirts of
Brasilia. He continued his painting and
sculpture experiments, creating works
directly influenced by his surroundings
and developed a working friendship
with artist Guilherme Vaz. It was in
Belo Horizonte that Mazurek met
Mauricio Takara and Guilherme
Granado, his partners in the São Paulo
Underground, a group dedicated to
exploring and expanding upon
Brazilian musical traditions. He would
move to Sao Paulo in 2005 and stayed
for 2 years before moving back to
Chicago.
Originally inspired by a joint
commission from the Chicago Cultural
Center and Jazz Institute of Chicago,
Mazurek founded the Exploding Star
Orchestra in 2005 to investigate
Chicago’s avant-garde musical
traditions with a group made up of
musicians from the North side, West
Side, South side, East side, from the
burgeoning post rock scene to the
highly influential AACM and North side
Improvisation Scene. The Orchestra has
premiered 10 extended suites since its
inception, including “Sting Ray and the
Beginning of Time,” “Cosmic Tomes for
Sleepwalking Lovers,” “Constellations
for Inner Light Projections for Bill
Dixon,” “Stars Have Shapes,” “63 Moons
of Jupiter”, “Transgressions Suite”, “The
Space Between”, “Atmospheres for
Roscoe Mitchell” and “Galactic Parables
Volume 1 and Volume 2”. The group has
featured luminaries Roscoe Mitchell,
Bill Dixon, and Fred Anderson
alongside it’s stellar cast of revolving
musicians including Nicole Mitchell,
Jeff Parker, Matt Bauder, Jeb Bishop, Ken
Vandermark, Mike Reed, John Herndon,
John McEntire, Jim Baker, Josh Abrams,
Jason Ajemian, Angelica Sanchez, Steve
Swell, Chad Taylor, Hamid Drake,
Tomeka Reid, Matthew Lux, Matana
Roberts, Kevin Drumm, Mauricio Takara,
Guilherme Granado, Jason Adasiewicz,
Avreeayal Ra, Dan Bitney, David
Boykins, Corey Wilkes, Carrie Biolo, Jeff
Kowalkowski, Jason Stein, Greg Ward,
Artur Majewski and more! In 2018
Mazurek was commissioned by the
Berlin Jazz Festival to compose music
for Exploding Star International which
included Berlin based musicians Els
Vandeweyer, Magda Mayas, Biliana
Voutchkova, Julia Reidy, Sabine Vogel
and Elias Stemeseder, with the world
premiere in November 2018. The
orchestra have performed at the
Frankfurt Jazz Festival, SESC Sao Paulo,
Sant’anna Arresi Jazz Festival, Jazz em
Agosto, Saalfelden Jazz Festival and
many more.
Over the years Mazurek has lead/co-
lead many ensembles of various sizes
and shapes including Exploding Star
Orchestra, Exploding Star International,
Desert Encrypts, Immortal Birds Bright
Wings, Pharaoh and the Underground
(featuring Pharoah Sanders), Chicago
Underground, Jeff Parker Duo, Pulsar
Quartet, São Paulo Underground,
Alternate Moon Cycles, Alien Flower
Sutra, Star Splitter, Return The Tides,
Skull Sessions Octet, Tigersmilk, Third
Coast Ensemble, Sound Is Quintet,
Starlicker, and Mandarin Movie, each of
which possesses its own distinct
musical personality. He has
collaborated with a wide variety of
artists, such as the great Bill Dixon,
Pharoah Sanders, Mike Ladd, Roscoe
Mitchell, Yusef Lateef, Fred Anderson,
Fred Hopkins, Liam Gillick, Naná
Vasconcelos, Rodrigo Brandao, Mamelo
Sound System, Alexandre Kassin,
Marcelo Camelo, and others.
As a composer, Mazurek has written
over 300 original compositions over
the past 30 years, and has released 70+
recordings on various labels including
Astral Spirits, International Anthem,
Aesthetics, Corbett vs Dempsey,
Cuneiform, CleanFeed, Delmark, El
Paraiso, Family Vineyard, Harmonipan,
Mego, Northern Spy, Rogue Art,
Submarine, Thrill Jockey, and his own
label Infinity Dogs. Beyond his
ensemble efforts, Mazurek’s solo
endeavors reflect his interest in
musique concrete, sound installation
and electronic sound manipulation,
with releases on Astral Spirits,
Cleanfeed, Bottrop-Boy, Delmark, Mego
and Moikai that document his
compositions utilizing Modular
Synthesizers, computer programming,
electronic effects and keyboards.
Mazurek has also been awarded a
number of commissions and awards. In
2019 Mazurek was commissioned with
Julien Desprez to compose new music
for a project called (T)ropic which will
premiere at the Sons de Hiver Festival
in France. In 2018 he was
commissioned to compose a new work
“Galactic Parables Volume 2” for
Exploding Star International for the
Berlin Jazz Festival. In 2017 he was
commissioned to compose a new work
for Area Sismica’s Forli Open Music
Program and presented “Forli Scores”
featuring Pasquale Mirra, Danilo Gallo,
Cristiano Calcagnile and Fabrizio
Puglisi. In 2016 he was commissioned
to compose a new work “Land of
Spirals” for the Novara Festival in Italy
and also received the key to the city
after the performance. In 2016, he
received a grant from the Graham
Foundation for Advanced Studies in the
Fine Arts for an experimental film
titled “The Farnsworth Scores” in
collaboration with filmmaker Lee Anne
Schmitt, which was shot at Mies van
der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House. In
2015 he was awarded a grant from the
Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, In 2013
Mazurek was awarded the Helen
Coburn Meier & Tim Meier Foundation
Grant. Also In 2013, he was
commissioned to compose “Galactic
Parables Volume 1” by the Sant’Anna
Arresi Jazz Festival in Sant’Anna Arresi,
Sardinia, Italy. In 2011, he was
commissioned to compose Violent
Orchid Suite by the Jazz & Wine
Festival in Cormons, Italy, and
Transgressions Suite, by the Sant'Anna
Arresi Jazz Festival. In 2010, he
received the Commissioning Music/USA
grant from Meet the Composer for a
multi-media work developed in
collaboration with video
artist/choreographer Marianne Kim. In
2005 he was awarded the prestigious
artist residency at Abbeye Royale de
Fontevraud in France. Mazurek has
been prominently featured in scores of
interviews and features including cover
features twice in the Wire’s “Adventures
in Modern Music” issues 201 and 354.
Mazurek’s visual work has garnered
much attention with international solo,
and group exhibitions/installations and
artist residencies. He has shown his
works at locations throughout the
United States, South America and
Europe, including the Rothko Chapel in
Houston, Texas, where his paintings
hang on the office walls, Marfa Book
Company (Marfa, Texas), Audible Gallery
at Experimental Sound Studio
(Chicago), URDLA Centre Estampe et
Livre (Villeurbanne, France) where his
solo show “Constellation Scores” was
featured as part of the 2017 Lyon
Bienalle focus series, Novas
Frequencies (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil),
Galleria Coletivo (São Paulo, Brazil),
Abbey Royal de Fontevraud
(Fontevraud-l’Abbaye, Anjou, France),
Heaven Gallery (Chicago), Le Grande
Fabrique (Dieppe, France) and Carrie
Secrist Gallery (Chicago). A book
released by Harmonipan Editions
“Marfa Loops Shouts and Hollers” was
released in 2018 concerning his
exhibition of the same name in Marfa
Texas, with essays by John Corbett,
Tiago Mesquita and Tim Johnson.