m2theory

STEVE COHN

Ever innovative, pianist Steve Cohn has developed a unique style of improvisation over the course of his career, which has taken him across styles of jazz as well as across the world. With over 25 recordings in his name, Steve has played with Eddie Henderson, Sonny Simmons, and Reggie Workman among many others. He has performed his own works at New York City’s Miller Theatre, the Newport JVC Festival, the Great American Music Hall, and at World Shakuhachi Festivals.

Cohn is a published composer and recording artist with more than 30 years’ teaching experience: master classes, workshops, and private instruction in jazz,  improvisational  and classical piano, shakuhachi (bamboo) flute, conga drums, and other international instruments. He has led many other instrumental workshops in schools and public forums throughout the Northeast metropolitan area, on the West Coast, and in Japan where he teaches groups and private students jazz and improvisational solo and ensemble playing on piano, shakuhachi flute, African Talking Drum, Wuhan Chinese Gong, Japanese Bowl, Fir Wood Blocks, Indian Cow Bell – large/small and other exotic wind instruments.

“Cohn’s intricate counterpoint and drama-infused harmonies are equally effective on muscular jazz-hued sprints and pointillistic passages. His cogent use of ethnic instruments goes well beyond stock poses of texture and transcendentalism. There are few American pianists who have Cohn’s talents” – Bill Shoemaker, Downbeat Magazine

LARRY ROLAND

         Larry Roland, poet, bassist, composer, educator, and music producer has been on the creative performance scene for close to 4 decades. His music and poetry has graced National and International Concert Halls, radio, television, the Internet, parks, street corners, outdoor theaters and private living rooms.

Roland is a native Bostonian who grew up in the city of higher learning and absorbed all it had to offer. He attended Boston University and it was there that he found his voice for poetry. After graduation he turned to a new creative outlet—the acoustic bass. He merged his poetry with the acoustic bass sound to form a unique combination of art that blended the European literal, and the “African in America” oral traditions. With a backdrop consisting of music he explores spirituality, identity and social issues throughout the Diaspora. Larry is one of the only poets who can recite while playing his instrument and his lyrics are profound while riding on an acoustic wave of bass lines that wash up and retreat over the shores of “so called” Jazz.

Larry’s credits include work with Charles Gayle, award winning dancer/choreographer Adrienne Hawkins, the Raphe’ Malik band, Jamyll Jones, Donel Fox, a noted award winning pianist and contemporary classical composer, and Waldron Ricks, a talented trumpeter/composer. He appears on his Boston Composer Group label in addition to several other labels.

CHUCK FERTAL

Born in New York City, Chuck Fertal studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he was a member of the instrumental performance program. He majored in drums, percussion and piano, studied music theory, ear training, harmony, improvisation, music history, jazz history, arranging and composition. Chuck studied privately on drums with Alan Dawson, Sam Ulano, and on piano with Connie Crothers on a scholarship for two years.

Credits include stints in which he played with Sonny Stitt (1972), Dorothy Donegan (1975), Sir Charles Thompson (1976), the Artie Barsamian Orchestra playing traditional Armenian music, Cecil Payne, and the Hoofers–an international jazz tap dance team. Chuck worked with Mal Waldron 1979 through 1987, guitarist Roland Prince, Marvin Horn, the Steve Cohn trio with Reggie Workman on bass, Jeremy Steig, Harold Danko, Ron McClure, Ratzo Harris, Malachi Thompson, Calvin Hill, Lyle Atkinson, Arnie Lawrence, Byard Lancaster, Bob Neloms, Cameron Brown, Bill Saxton, Sonny Fortune, Jack Wilkins, Santi  Debriano, Junior Cook, Bob Cranshaw,  George Cables, Adam Mackiewicz, Cecil McBee, and Richard Wyans.

Sifu Fertal says, “Teaching to me is making a positive difference in peoples’ lives teaching kung fu, Tai Chi, Zen meditation, piano and drums.”

MICHAEL MOSS

As a reed player and composer, Michael Moss has been actively involved in the music scene for many years, leading his own musical groups including Mike Moss/4 Rivers and Free Energy, as half of a collaborative duo with guitarist Billy Stein, with Charles Downs’ Centipede, and the collaborative group the New York Free Quartet. Moss is past-President of Free Life Communication (a musician’s cooperative in NYC) and is featured in a soon to be published book about loft jazz written by Bob Gluck (University of Chicago Press), and is the former Music Director of Loft in the Sky Jazz Festival in Lexington, NY. He has been the recipient of numerous Meets the Composer and NYSCA grants and is presently a member of the Greene County Council on the Arts. Moss formed ERG Publishing, and 4th Stream Records, an independent record label which has produced multiple LPs, cassettes, and CDs beginning in the ‘70s featuring Moss as leader and composer, the latest being INTERVALS (2013) with Billy Stein, and the soon to be released CD Free Play with NYFQ. He appears on Natural (2013) with Michael Mahaffay, and New York and Me (2013) with storyteller Regina Ress.

As a reed player and band leader, multi-instrumentalist and composer Michael Moss has played with a large eclectic group of musicians including Sam Rivers, Dave Liebman, Dave Burrell, Richie Beirach, Paul Bley, Annette Peacock, William Parker, Bobby Moses, Armen Halburian, Rashid Bakr/Charles Downs, Jackson Krall, Burton Greene, Ras Moshe, Badal Roy, Bob Telson, and Laurence Cook. He has also worked with a number of established modern dancers including Judith Moss, Rosalind Newman, Beth Soll, and Leslie Satin

Following a life-long passion for expanding jazz improvisation to include musical traditions from around the world, Moss has studied music of the Middle East, India, Senegal, Ireland and Europe in an effort to work them into the jazz tradition of John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, and Cecil Taylor, all in an effort to truly understand compose music reflecting different ethnic traditions. He has traveled to India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Netherlands, England, Germany, and France where he worked with the finest musicians.

Michael has a Ph.D. in psychology and has practiced in many settings for over 45 years. His doctoral dissertation is entitled Intuition and Creativity.

Following is a list of webpages hosted by our members where you may find discographies and complete bios, reviews, and sound files:

Larry Roland: http://ogijaz.com

Steve Cohn: http://thestevecohn.com

Michael Moss: http://www.m2-Theory.com