FONT Music
The
Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT Music) was created to support new trumpet
music in all its forms, and to provide a platform for emerging artists and
creative pioneers. Its primary goal is to celebrate the excellence of the
current music scene by hosting an astoundingly broad array of new trumpet music
performances. By presenting over two weeks of concerts, commissioning new works,
creating new projects, hosting panels, and collaborating with other New York
presenters and international artists, FONT exposes the exciting range of
current activity and brings together disparate communities of musicians,
students, and audiences. FONT Music, a non-profit organization, also gives back
to the community by benefiting music programs in the New York City Public
Schools.
Official Site - FONT Music
MARK ISHAM
Mark Isham is an American trumpeter,
synthesist, and composer. He works in a variety of genres, including jazz,
electronic, and film. Isham studied classical music at an early age and played
trumpet, piano and violin. The Isham family later moved to San Francisco, where
Mark found work in several of the local orchestras. He also became actively
involved in the Bay Area rock and roll scene of the 1960s, performing live with
several of the local groups.
He was a member of a Marin County band called
Beefy Red from 1970-72, performing both on trumpet and soprano saxophone. (The
group also included guitarist Barry Finnerty, who later played and recorded
with Miles Davis, the Crusaders, and the Brecker Brothers, among others.) After
performing in music venues ranging from Marin's 'Lion's Share' to San
Francisco's Fillmore West, Beefy Red disbanded in January, 1972.
In 1974 Isham joined former Beefy Red horn player
Phil Woods and drummer James Preston in The Sons of Champlin. The Sons of
Champlin, like Beefy Red, were unusual in the San Francisco psychedelic scene
in featuring a large brass section. Isham wrote and performed his recording
debut on the instrumental song 'Marp' (a takeoff on the name of the then-new
'Arp' synthesizer) on the Sons' self-titled album, released in 1975.
During the 1970s, he learned to program
synthesizers and became active in the progressive jazz movement. In 1976 Isham
and pianist Art Lande formed a quartet called Rubisa Patrol. They released two
albums: Rubisa Patrol (1976) and Desert Marauders (1978). It was in this group
that Isham surfaced as a solo trumpeter with a strong Miles Davis influence.
In 1977, Isham performed on the Taj Mahal album
Evolution (The Most Recent). This was the beginning of Isham's career as a
sessions artist, which continues to present day. He has worked with artists as
diverse as Van Morrison, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Ziggy Marley, David
Sylvian, Hector Zazou, David Torn, Toots Thielemans and Tanita Tikaram.
In 1978, he formed a group called Group 87. Group
87 featured bassist Patrick O'Hearn, drummers Terry Bozzio and Peter Van Hooke
(at different times) and guitarist Peter Maunu. All of these artists would work
with Isham in future solo projects. They released two albums: Group 87 (1980)
and A Career in Dada Processing (1984).
From 1979 through 1983, he worked with Van
Morrison's band playing synthesizer and trumpet on four of his abums: Into the
Music, Common One, Beautiful Vision and Inarticulate Speech of the Heart.
In 1983, he released his first solo album, Vapor
Drawings. Its style is an atmospheric and deeply experimental blend of modern
jazz and electronic music. It was also the first album released on the Windham
Hill label to feature extensive use of synthesizers.
That same year he also scored the soundtrack for
the Carroll Ballard film Never Cry Wolf. This brought immediate attention and
subsequent film score jobs. His second solo album was a compilation of these
works titled Film Music (1985).
Additionally, in 1983, Isham was invited to play
with RMS and Gil Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He flew in to Montreux
and played the same night whilst extremely jet-lagged. The resulting concert
was eventually released on DVD in 2004 on the Angel Air Record Label.
From 1987 to 1992 he composed scores for the
"Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics" series of videos and CDs. These were
narrated by famous actors such as William Hurt and Glenn Close.
His albums Castalia (1988) and Tibet (1989) were
both Grammy-nominated. He won in 1990 with his album Mark Isham.
In 1992, he published his first orchestral work
Five Stories for Trumpet and Orchestra. The same year he earned an Academy
Award nomination for the soundtrack of the film A River Runs Through It. During
the following years he became a prolific film score composer. Some of his film
scores include: Save the Last Dance, Men of Honor and October Sky.
In 1995, he released an album titled Blue Sun.
This was his first album to follow a mainstream contemporary jazz format.
In 1999, he formed a group to interpret the music
of Miles Davis's late 1960s through mid-1970s electric jazz fusion and released
an album, Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project, which was recorded live.
Isham is a practitioner of Scientology. He lives
in the Hidden Hills gated community in the County of Los Angeles.
In 2007, his music, "A Sense of Touch"
from the soundtrack of Crash is featured in the Law & Order SVU Season
finale "Screwed."
Official Site - Mark Isham
