Paul Hecht Quartet with Mark Feldman

Sponsored by BlueStem Jazz | Paul Hecht Quartet, Featuring Mark Feldman With Ben Dillinger, bass, and Gustavo Cortiñas, drums

After notable appearances last year, pianist Paul Hecht and violinist Mark Feldman return to Madison, this time presenting Hecht’s compositions, ahead of an upcoming recording project. Hecht’s pieces draw on a wide range of influences, but their use of western classical and romantic forms makes for a particularly good partnership with Feldman, a masterful musician who has been remarkably successful at integrating vocabulary from classical music into a wide range of improvisational settings. Feldman is added here to Hecht’s regular Pyrography trio, featuring Ben Dillinger on bass and Gustavo Cortiñas on drums, both of whom are accomplished composers and bandleaders in their own right.

Grammy award-winning violinist Mark Feldman’s career has spanned many musical worlds and a tremendous list of collaborators; a unique figure in jazz, Feldman is a violinist with impeccable classical technique and a unique modern jazz style. In addition to his own projects, his 230-plus album credits and extensive touring history are impressive in their breadth: a member of the John Abercrombie quartet for over 10 years, he has recorded and toured with Pharoah Sanders, Billy Hart, Paul Bley, Uri Caine, Muhal Richard Abrams, Placido Domingo, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Michael Brecker, and Lee Konitz. He also toured and recorded with John Zorn for over 30 years. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. His own projects include What Exit (ECM, 2005), Music for Violin Alone (1995), produced by John Zorn for his Tzadik label, and Sounding Point (2021) on the Swiss label Intakt. Feldman’s intuitive approach to his instrument, his lightning-fast ears and adventurous approach to jazz and improvisation have earned him worldwide recognition. Recently he relocated to Chicago after 36 years in New York City.

 Paul Hecht is a pianist, composer, and writer based in Chicago and Eau Claire, WI. Last year, Hecht toured with a quartet led by Mark Feldman that featured Feldman’s compositions, and which included bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Quin Kirchner. Other notable Chicago-area collaborators include Rob Clearfield, Matt Ulery, Greg Ward, James Davis, Daniel Thatcher, Tim Davis, Michael Hudson-Casanova, Andy Danstrom, James Russell Sims, Samuel Peters, Harry Tonchev, and Emma Dayhuff. Hecht’s book about English poetry at the end of the sixteenth century, What Rosalind Likes, was published last year by Oxford University Press.

Drummer, composer, and entrepreneur Gustavo Cortiñas has become one of the most intriguing and prolific forces on the Chicago musical scene. The last year saw the release of two powerful and contrasting recordings which have garnered grants, rave reviews, and much interest in Chicago, nationally, and internationally. Born in Mexico and educated in New Orleans and Chicago, Cortiñas’s music displays his desire to pull together the threads of his history and passions: Latin American folklore, jazz and classical music, philosophy, religion, and the Latin American cry for justice—as he translates the title of his double-album, Desafío Candente, or “incandescent act of defiance,” which has also become the name of his newly-formed record label with pianist and composer Javier Red. That record, with 30 collaborators from 10 different countries, does no less than attempt a traversal of the entire history of Latin America, using as its basis the Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano’s famous book, The Open Veins of Latin America. His most recent release, Kind Regards/Saludos Afectuosos, is an intimate collection of 10 songs by a splendid quintet (piano/voice, bass, guitar, trumpet, and drums), five each in Spanish and English, narrating scenes of modern alienation and connection across borders.

Ben Dillinger is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and educator who has been working professionally in Chicago for the past 10 years. His formal training is in jazz performance and composition, but he has also performed in many different musical settings including classical, musical theater, rock, and popular music. As an educator he has taught at Roosevelt University, Morton College, and The Chicago High School of Performing Arts.