Following his solo performance at the Vilnius Jazz festival in 2017, Rob Mazurek, a leading figure on the Chicago avant-garde scene, is presenting himself this year in yet another role, alongside his São Paulo Underground trio project: as the founder, leader, composer and conductor of the avant-garde jazz ensemble Exploding Star Orchestra.

The artist describes this project as the flagship of his creative output, the musical and philosophical centre of all his work, and the shining star of his conceptual ideas.

The orchestra was formed in 2005, when the Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute asked Mazurek to put together a group that would reflect the city’s avant-garde musical traditions. He gathered musicians from various communities across Chicago ranging from his long-standing colleagues, influential figures in Black music from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) to coryphées of free jazz and post-rock.

The group embodies the full spectrum of contemporary and improvisational musical styles and ideologies. It has evoked Béla Bartók and Gil Evans, Morton Feldman and Bill Dixon, Sun Ra and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and presented ten original, elaborated suites which, in accordance with Mazurek’s vision, fuse complex compositional structures and collective improvisations, electronics and various sonic effects, with spoken recitatives and rituals.

According to critics, any music performed by this vibrant orchestra sounds like spontaneous free jazz. The ensemble appears in various line-ups and is constantly evolving. It has featured such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, Fred Anderson, Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor, Tomeka Reid, Jaimie Branch, Josh Abrams and many others.

On the Vilnius Jazz stage, the Exploding Star Orchestra will perform music from their album Holy Mountains. The album is based on a recording of a live concert at the 2022 Sesc Jazz festival in São Paulo. For that festival, Mazurek had brought together musicians not only from the US, but also from Brazil and Europe. This multicultural ensemble has now also travelled to Vilnius.

“These musicians are all masters of improvisation, bringing their culture to music. I implicitly trust them in everything. As much freedom as possible”, explained Mazurek, for whom making music is an attempt to discover the cracks and crevices in the daily routine that conceal magic.

Rob Mazurek, an American composer of electro-acoustic music, multidisciplinary artist, cornetist, improviser and band leader, has been regarded as a trailblazer in improvisational music for four decades. Hundreds of compositions and more than 70 released albums have earned an artist, delving in a wide variety of stylistic contexts, a reputation as one of the most prominent improvisers of his generation.

His work has received the highest praise in influential music publications. Mazurek’s creative vision is supported by foundations and other institutions in the US, Brazil, Italy and France, the artist has been commissioned to create projects by festivals and galleries in these countries.

The most prolific periods of the improviser’s career are associated with Chicago and Manaus in Brazil. Inspired by Sun Ra’s music at the Chicago Jazz Festival whilst still a teenager, Mazurek resolved to strive for the heights of improvisation, whilst he took up painting after being captivated by the works of Mark Rothko, a leading figure of abstract expressionism in Chicago.

While living in Brazil in 2000–2007, the musician crafted exotic soundscapes from the sounds of the Amazon rainforest and, inspired by the local natural environment, created sculptures and painted. Having met his future creative partners, Mauricio Takara and Guilherme Granado, in Brazil, he developed an interest in Brazilian musical traditions.

Mazurek’s work is as colourful as his life experiences. The artist concocts his compositions with a shamanic intensity, drawing on modular synthesisers, electronic effects, computer programming and keyboard instruments.

Having emerged from the circle of Chicago’s jazz experimentalists in the 1990s, the artist has shared the stage with the most prominent figures in jazz, electronic, rock and improvisational music from the Americas and Europe, including Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Roscoe Mitchell, Jim O’Rourke, Fred Anderson, Jeff Parker, Joshua Abrams, Emmett Kelly, Sam Prekop, Bill Dixon, Mike Ladd and Marcelo Camelo.

At this year’s Vilnius Jazz, Mazurek will be performing with two of his ensembles – the trio São Paulo Underground and the avant-garde jazz orchestra Exploding Star Orchestra. He has led and composed music for numerous other ensembles of varying line-ups, including Exploding Star International, Desert Encrypts, Immortal Birds Bright Wings, Pharaoh and the Underground (with Pharoah Sanders), Chicago Underground, Pulsar Quartet, Alternate Moon Cycles, Alien Flower Sutra and Star Splitter.

The artist combines his solo performances with exhibitions of his videos, paintings, lithographs and sculptures, as well as sound installations; he sometimes improvises based on graphic scores and 3D lithographs. He organises solo exhibitions of his own work and takes part in group exhibitions. Mazurek’s works have been exhibited in galleries and other art venues across the US, South America and Europe, as well as at the Lyon Biennale (2017).

Hamid Drake is one of the most prominent percussionists in contemporary jazz and improvisational music, a driving force behind New York’s Black avant-garde. He has captivated the Vilnius Jazz audience time and again with his projects. His work merges together diverse musical genres and cultural influences, showcasing instruments from a wide range of geographical regions. For Drake, making music is inseparable from his mission to spread the light of wisdom and humanist ideas.

This artist is featured on countless albums and has shared the stage with a whole host of jazz visionaries, including Don Cherry, William Parker, Pharoah Sanders, Marilyn Crispell, Misha Mengelberg, Wayne Shorter, Archie Shepp, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Matthew Shipp, David Murray, Mats Gustafsson, Pierre Dørge and Ken Vandermark.

The critics’ polls of the influential jazz magazine DownBeat have repeatedly named Drake the world’s best percussionist.

Guilherme Granado is a versatile Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and electronic music artist, one of the leading figures on Brazil’s experimental scene and a representative of what is known as ‘electronic spiritualism’.

In his music, he masterfully blends live improvisation, jazz, ambient music, traditional tropical motifs and loop-based beats.

In addition to being a member of São Paulo Underground and Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, he is a member of the Brazilian alternative rock band Hurtmold; creates and produces solo projects under various pseudonyms (one of the best known being Bodes & Elefantes).

Throughout his career, the musician has collaborated on the stage and in recording studios with a host of legends from the worlds of jazz and experimental music, including Pharoah Sanders, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, Naná Vasconcelos, electronic music producer Prefuse 73, Marcelo Camelo, John Herndon and Josh Abrams. He also composes soundtracks for films and audiovisual projects.

Mauricio Takara is a talented Brazilian jazz drummer, percussionist and electronic music composer. In his music, he blends elements of jazz, rock and electronic music; uses samplers and synthesisers.

Besides the trio São Paulo Underground and Mazurek’s avant-garde jazz orchestra, Takara is actively involved in composing experimental music in a duo with sound artist Carla Boregas and is the founder and a member of the Brazilian instrumental rock band Hurtmold.

He has recorded and performed with leading figures in jazz, improvisational and experimental music, including Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Archie Shepp, Damo Suzuki and others.

Thomas Roher, an improviser and experimental musician of Swiss origin, is Mazurek’s regular stage partner. He has been living in Brazil since 1995.

Having begun his musical career as a violinist, Roher later studied the saxophone. He also plays the rabeca, a traditional Brazilian violin. The artist’s music is based on free improvisation and experimental music, in which he often draws on traditional Brazilian rhythms.

Roher is a member of the Brazilian improvisational music collective Abaetetuba, collaborates with many well-known jazz and avant-garde artists, and releases albums on experimental music labels.

A frequent Norwegian guest at Vilnius Jazz, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, a pioneer of both acoustic and electric bass, tours the world regularly and has appeared on hundreds of albums. Without this improviser, it would be hard to imagine the legendary Scandinavian bands The Thing, Free Fall, Atomic, Scorch Trio, Icepick, I.P.A., Dave Rempis Percussion Quartet and many other projects.

Between 2006 and 2020, the bassist lived in the US, where he formed the Chicago Sextet and the group The Young Mothers, and founded the Sonic Transmissions festival. Since returning to Norway, he has continued to perform with improvisers of the very highest calibre. The stage brought Flaten together with James Blood Ulmer, Chick Corea, Yusef Lateef, Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, Bugge Wesseltoft, John Scofield, Mats Gustafsson, Chris Potter, Joe Lovano, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker and many other musical luminaries.

The bassist has featured many times in the critics’ polls of the influential jazz magazine DownBeat and has garnered major Norwegian jazz awards.

Pasquale Mirra is one of the most interesting and active vibraphonists and composers on the Italian and international jazz scene. The respected magazine Jazzit has recognised him as the country’s best vibraphonist on numerous occasions, whilst critics from the Italian publication Musica Jazz have ranked him amongst the year’s best musicians.

Mirra is renowned for his virtuosity and his ability to skilfully blend structured composition with free improvisation. The musician played for many years in the jazz-funk band Mop Mop, is a member of the Afro-funk and experimental music project C’mon Tigre and collaborates closely with Drake. Throughout his career, Mirra has recorded over 50 albums and shared the stage with illustrious figures in jazz and avant-garde such as Fred Frith, Nicole Mitchell, Rob Mazurek, Michel Portal, Ballaké Sissoko and others.

Rodrigo Brandão is peerless in Brazilian hip-hop, a rapper, poet and music producer. He is often described as a bridge between the São Paulo underground and the global experimental music scene. Brandão has contributed significantly to the development of rap culture in São Paulo, honing his style for decades as part of the cult project Mamelo Sound System. He has gained renown for his international and cross-genre projects blending hip-hop with jazz, Afrobeat and traditional Brazilian music.

Brandão has collaborated with the legendary avant-garde jazz ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra, US hip-hop icons DJ Prince Paul and Ladybug Mecca, jazz and avant-garde luminaries Pharoah Sanders, Tony Allen, Brian Jackson and Rob Mazurek, and the most prominent figures on the Brazilian rap scene. He is also a member of the renowned trio Zulumbi.