Sat, Feb 25
7:00pm doors; 8pm showtime
10:00pm doors; 10:30pm showtime

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Mark Guiliana is admired for his creative impulse and individual sound and brings to Winter Fest his acoustic quartet.  JazzTimes raves “Guiliana, a technical master with a rare sense of musicality, has over the past decade become one of the most influential drummers of his generation.”

The New Jersey native has been in the vanguard of drummers creating a new vernacular on the instrument, blending virtuosity on acoustic drums with artfully deployed  electronic beats and processing. Guiliana was chosen as Best Jazz Drummer in the Modern Drummer Readers Poll 2017, while DownBeat dubbed him a Rising Star in its Critics Poll. In a review of 2015 release Family First (Motema), DownBeat noted that “Guiliana sounds like Tony Williams filtered through Dave Grohl. His band plays advanced postmodern freebop with a garage/grunge sense of license.”

Along with leading his own groups  – the acoustic Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet and electronica-minded Beat Music – the drummer has  appeared on a string of acclaimed recordings with others. The verve and precision of Guiliana’s drumming was a prime mover of Blackstar, David Bowie’s multiple Grammy Award-winning final album. Guiliana teamed with keyboardist Brad Mehldau as the duo Mehliana for the Nonesuch  release Taming the Dragon, and he has also collaborated with such artists as saxophonist Donny  McCaslin, guitar hero John Scofield, Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer-songwriter Matt Cameron,  neo-soul singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, guitarist-vocalist Lionel Loueke, jazz bassist  Avishai Cohen, reggae/hip-hop artist Matisyahu and jazz singer Gretchen Parlato. With teaching key to Guiliana’s identity as a musician, he has given clinics and masterclasses  across the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Japan and China.

As Time Out London declares, “What happens when you add hard-bop drum masters Elvin Jones and Art Blakey to a 1980s Roland 808 drum machine, divide the result by J Dilla and then multiply to the power of Squarepusher? Answer: Mark Guiliana.”

Guiliana’s unique soundprint led Modern Drummer to  declare him “at the forefront of an exciting new style of drummer,” while The New York Times pointed out how he has become “a drummer around whom a cult of admiration has formed.”

markguiliana.com
Mark Guiliana on Instagram