10 Facts About Rob Mazurek

Rob Mazurek was born on 1965 and is an American composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Illinois.

Rob Mazurek is an American electro-acoustic composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Illinois.

Rob Mazurek first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, eventually working with other Chicago musicians like Kenny Prince, Robert Barry, Jodie Christian, Lin Halliday and Earma Thompson.

In 1996, Rob Mazurek formed the longstanding Chicago Underground Collective with guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Chad Taylor, a unit that ranges in size from duo to orchestra.

Originally inspired by a joint commission from the Chicago Cultural Center and Jazz Institute of Chicago, Rob Mazurek founded the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005 to investigate Chicago's avant-garde musical traditions.

Rob Mazurek currently leads a number of ensembles, including Exploding Star Orchestra, Pharaoh and the Underground, Chicago Underground, Pulsar Quartet, Sao Paulo Underground, Skull Sessions, Sound Is Quintet, Starlicker, Mandarin Movie, and Throne of the House of Good and Evil, each of which possesses its own distinct musical personality.

Rob Mazurek has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, such as Bill Dixon, Pharoah Sanders, Mike Ladd, Roscoe Mitchell, Yusef Lateef, Fred Anderson, Nana Vasconcelos, Mamelo Sound System, Alexandre Kassin, Marcelo Camelo, and others.

Rob Mazurek has been awarded a number of commissions and awards.

Rob Mazurek has shown his multi-media works at locations throughout the United States and Europe, including the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, where his paintings hang on the office walls.

Rob Mazurek's pieces have appeared at Marfa Book Company, Galleria Coletivo, Abbey Royal de Fontevraud, Gantner Multi-Media Center, Heaven Gallery, Naked Duck Gallery, Le Grande Fabrique and URDLA Centre Estampe et Livre.