Paul Hecht Quartet with Mark Feldman

Chicago-based pianist Paul Hecht has been working on his first album as a leader, planned for fall, and continuing to play shows with the Pyrography Trio, also including bassist Ben Dillinger and drummer Gustavo Cortiñas. For this show, those three players will be joined by violinist Mark Feldman, whose lengthy resume includes work in classical, country and jazz (Feldman has to be the only person to have played with Loretta Lynn as well as John Zorn). Presented by BlueStem Jazz.

media release: Sponsored by BlueStem Jazz | Pianist Paul Hecht is an emerging figure on the Chicago jazz scene, who has recently moved into music after a career teaching poetry. In addition to his work in this quartet, he also performs regularly with violinist Mark Feldman, including a recent series of performances celebrating the reprinting of Feldman’s recording of 2006 on ECM, What Exit. Other notable Chicago-area collaborators include Ethan Philion, Quin Kirchner, Michael Hudson-Casanova, James Davis, Rob Clearfield, Matt Ulery, Greg Ward, Daniel Thatcher, Tim Davis, James Russell Sims, Peter Castronova, Al Keeler, Samuel Peters, Harry Tonchev, and Emma Dayhuff. Hecht plans to release his first recording as a leader in late 2023. Hecht’s book about English poetry at the end of the sixteenth century, What Rosalind Likes, was published last year by Oxford University Press.

Mark Feldman worked in Chicago from 1973–1980, in Nashville, Tennessee from 1980–1986, in New York City and Western Europe from 1986. He has performed with John Zorn, John Abercrombie, The Masada String Trio, Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, and Billy Hart. He was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and played in many bar bands in Chicago. He played on over 200 recordings in Nashville as a studio musician, was a member of the Nashville Symphony, and was a member of the touring groups of country western entertainers Loretta Lynn and Ray Price. In 2003, he was soloist with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Guus Janssen's Violin Concerto and with the WDR Jazz Orchestra in Concerto for Violin and Jazz Orchestra by Bill Dobbins. At New York's Lincoln Center he performed in duo with pianists Paul Bley and Muhal Richard Abrams. He has recorded with Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and Chris Potter and has played on over 100 recordings in New York City as a soloist in contemporary music and modern jazz. Feldman has released several albums, including Music for Violin Alone (Tzadik, 1995); Book of Tells (Enja, 2000); What Exit (ECM, 2006 with British pianist John Taylor; To Fly to Steal (Intakt, 2010) with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerry Hemingway; and Oblivia (Tzadik, 2010) with his wife, Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier.

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 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.

Gusatvo Cortinas is a composer, bandleader, drummer and lyricist Gustavo Cortiñas continues to surpass himself in the breadth of his work. “Cortiñas' music is uplifting, robust, melodic, and gets your body moving; it's an exciting blend of the artist's musical influences from jazz and Latin America, including his native Mexico" (DOWNBEAT). This can be heard on his four records as a leader, "Snapshot" (2013), "a Smörgåsbord of the moods and nuances that make up the human experience," (Jazziz); "ESSE" (2017) "a fascinating musical realization, exploration, and distillation of the works of Hegel, Aristotle, Descartes, Plato, and other brilliant minds" (AllAboutJazz); and “Desafío Candente” (2021), “a musical palimpsest that carries the weight of the history of colonialism and neocolonialism of the entire southern part of the Americas” (LatinJazzNet). On his latest release, “Kind Regards / Saludos Afectuosos”, Cortiñas gives life, through music, to words that attempt to build bridges and understanding in times of borders and ignorance; words that focus on our feet and the dust on which they walk, instead of the stars under which they dream.