Rafiq Bhatia official site | Rafiq Bhatia on Twitter | Rafiq Bhatia on Facebook
Marcus Gilmore on Facebook | Marcus Gilmore on twitter | Marcus Gilmore on Instagram
The music of composer, guitarist, and producer Rafiq Bhatia seeks to reconcile meticulously sculpted sound art with risk-imbued improvisation, communicating earnest emotional intensity through labyrinthine sonic complexity. His early explorations, documented on two critically-acclaimed recordings – Strata and Yes It Will – have been described by the New York Times as “transcending real sound in real time with the unexpected,” and by the Washington Post as “approximat[ing] life in the information age…profuse, immersive and immense.”
In 2014, Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang joined founder Ryan Lott as members of Son Lux, expanding the former solo project into a trio. They have since been heralded as “the world’s most lethal band” by NPR, and described as “thrilling… an ideal synthesis of contemporary forms” by the Wall Street Journal. In the past two years, Son Lux have written, recorded, and released an LP, Bones, and have given over 250 performances in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Bhatia has also worked with a breadth of creative musicians including improvisers Vijay Iyer, Billy Hart, David Virelles, and Marcus Gilmore; producers Valgeir Sigurðsson and Prefuse 73; vocalists Sam Dew, Olga Bell, and Moses Sumney; emcees Heems (Das Racist) and High Priest (Anti-Pop Consortium); members of the chamber ensembles ICE, JACK, and Alarm Will Sound; and numerous others. You can hear him on recordings featuring pop revisionists Lorde and Sufjan Stevens, and on the soundtracks to the films The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Air, and Afflicted.
Marcus Gilmore (born 1986) was inspired by the music of his grandfather, legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, who gave him his first set of drums at age 10. He is a graduate of the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts in New York City and is currently attending the Manhattan School of Music. Marcus received the Wynton Kelly Foundation Award, the Wyoming Seminary PAI Best Instrumentalist Award, the Essentially Ellington Best Drum Solo Award, Vail Jazz Festival Ella Fitzgerald Scholarship, and the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony. He has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Monterey High School Jazz Band Japan Tour and the Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY High School Jazz Ensembles. In 2003, Marcus performed at the 28th International Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland, as part of Clark Terry’s “Young Titans of Jazz.” The same band gave its New York debut at Birdland last fall. Gilmore also loves Afro-Cuban jazz and plays timbales and Latin percussion. He has performed with Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, John Clayton, Najee and others, and has sat in with Chick Corea, Ray Barretto, Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon, and Roy Hargrove.
Rashaan Carter grew up in the Washington D.C. area. It was there, with the nurturing of his father, a saxophonist, and his mother, a jazz radio programmer, Rashaan forged an interest in music. After stints with various instruments, the bass became the voice for his musical expression. Rashaan worked and gained experience in the local scene in Washington D.C. and after high school, moved to New York City to attend the New School University. At the New School, Rashaan studied with Buster Williams and Reggie Workman. While attending the New School he also began to work with many of the faculty including Joe Chambers and Jimmy Owens, among others. Since moving to New York Rashaan has become entrenched in the jazz scene and has worked with Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller and Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney, Marc Cary, Cindy Blackman, Doug and Jean Carn, Antoine Roney, Sonny Simmons, and many more. He’s also studied with one of his prime influences, Ron Carter. Rashaan regularly performs with a myriad of artists in and outside of New York and can be found on various recordings as well.