Mark Helias
Helias at Cornelia street cafe, July 2, 2010
Background information
Born	(1950-10-01)October 1, 1950 (age 75) New Brunswick,New Jersey, United States
Genres	Jazz,Avant-garde jazz,Free jazz,Free improvisation
Occupations	Musician, composer, educator
Instrument	Double bass
Labels	Enja, Radio Legs,Koch,Marge, GM
Website	MarkHelias.com/

Mark Helias (born October 1, 1950) is an American double bass player and composer born inNew Brunswick,New Jersey.^[1]

He started playing the double bass at the age of 20,^[2] and studied withHomer Mensch atRutgers University from 1971 to 1974, then at Yale School of Music from 1974 to 1976.^[1] He teaches atSarah Lawrence College,The New School, and SIM (School for Improvised Music).^[3]

Helias has performed with a wide variety of musicians, first and foremost with trombonistRay Anderson, with whom he led the ironic 1980savant-funk band Slickaphonics, and a trio withGerry Hemingway on drums, formed in the late 1970s, later named BassDrumBone.^[1][2] Helias has also performed with members ofOrnette Coleman's band,Don Cherry,Dewey Redman, andEd Blackwell, and with musicians affiliated with theAACM, such asAnthony Braxton andMuhal Richard Abrams.^[2][3]

Since 1984 Mark Helias has released twelve recordings under his own name and further albums leading the archetypal improvising trio Open Loose since the late 1990s.^[4][2] The group comprises Helias on bass, firstEllery Eskelin, thenTony Malaby on tenor saxophone andTom Rainey on drums.^[2]

• 2010 -American Composers Orchestra Reading Commission,
• 2007 - Chamber Music America Grant for New Works,
• 2006 - Distinguished Alumnus AwardLivingston College,
• 1991 - Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commission,
• 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000 - Arts International Travel Grant,
• 1988, 1994 -NYFA Grant in Music Composition,
• 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995 - NEA Grant in Jazz Performance,
• 1981 - CAPS Grant in Music Composition,

• Music For Big Band (Radio Legs, 2020)
• Roof Rights (Radio Legs, 2020)
• Available Light (Radio Legs, 2020)
• Fictionary (GM Recordings, 1998)
• Loopin' the Cool (Enja, 1995)
• Attack the Future (Enja, 1992)
• Desert Blue (Enja, 1989)
• The Current Set (Enja, 1987)
• Split Image (Enja, 1984)

With Open Loose

• The Third Proposition (Radio Legs, 2020)
• The Signal Maker (Intakt, 2015)
• Explicit – Live at the Sunset (Marge, 2011)
• Strange Unison (Radio Legs, 2008)
• Atomic Clock (Radio Legs, 2006)
• Verbs of Will (Radio Legs, 2004)
• New School (Enja, 2001)Tony Malaby replaces Eskelin
• Come Ahead Back... (E1/Koch Jazz, 1998) withEllery Eskelin andTom Rainey

Duo with Jane Ira Bloom

• Some Kind of Tomorrow (Radiolegs Music, 2020)

With Sophia Domancich andAndrew Cyrille

• Courtepointe - Live at the Sunside (Marge, 2012)

With Terrence McManus andGerry Hemingway

• Transcendental Numbers (NoBusiness, 2011)

WithMichael Moore, Alex Maguire, andHan Bennink

• White Widow (Ramboy, 2001)

WithMark Dresser

• The Marks Brothers (De Werf, 2000)

With Daniele D'Agaro and U.T. Gandhi

• Gentle Ben (Nota, 1999)

WithChristy Doran,Bobby Previte,Gary Thomas

• Corporate Art (JMT, 1991)

WithSlickaphonics

• Live (Teldec, 1988)
• Check Your Head at the Door (Teldec, 1986)
• Humatomic Energy (Blue Heron, 1985)
• Modern Life (Enja, 1984)
• Wow Bag (Enja, 1982)

WithRay Anderson andGerry Hemingway a.k.a. BassDrumBone

• The Long Road - BassDrumBone with Jason Moran and Joe Lovano (Auricle, 2017)
• The Other Parade (Clean Feed, 2011)
• The Line Up (Clean Feed, 2006)
• March of Dimes (Data, 2002)
• (Hence the Reason) (Enja, 1997)
• Wooferlo (Soul Note, 1989) first album as BassDrumBone
• Cooked to Perfection (Auricle, 1999; Compilation of rec. from 1986, 1987, and 1996)
• You Be (Minor Music, 1986)
• Oahspe (Auricle, 1979)

WithRalph Alessi and Modular Theatre

• Open Season (RKM Music, 2008)

WithBarry Altschul

• Irina (Soul Note, 1983)
• Brahma (Sackville, 1980)
• Somewhere Else (Moers Music, 1979)

WithRay Anderson

• Wishbone (Justin Time, 1991)
• Right Down Your Alley (Soul Note, 1984)

With theEd Blackwell Project

• What It Is? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 1 (Enja, 1993)
• What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2 (Enja, 1994)

WithJane Ira Bloom

• Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickenson (Outline, 2017)
• Early Americans (Outline, 2016)
• Wingwalker (Outline, 2011)
• Mental Weather (Outline, 2008)

WithAnthony Braxton

• Six Compositions: Quartet (Antilles, 1982)
• Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY, 2001)
• Quintet (Moers) 1977 - 05.30 (Braxton Bootleg, 2013)
• Trillium J (New Braxton House, 2016)

WithDon Cherry

• Live at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, 1986 (BBC, 2002)

WithMarilyn Crispell

• Storyteller (ECM, 2003)

WithFranco D'Andrea

• Sei brani inediti (Red, 1991)
• No Idea of Time (Red, 1984)
• My One and Only Love (Red, 1983)

WithAnthony Davis

• Song for the Old World (India Navigation, 1978)

WithBenoît Delbecq Unit

• Benoît Delbecq andFred Hersch Double Trio -Fun House (Songlines, 2013)
• Phonetics (Songlines, 2005)

WithPaul Dunmall Sun Quartet

• Ancient and Future Airs (Clean Feed, 2009)

WithMarty Ehrlich

• The Long View (Enja, 2002)
• Dark Woods Ensemble –Sojourn (Tzadik, 1999)
• Dark Woods Ensemble –Live Wood (Music & Arts, 1997)
• Dark Woods Ensemble –Just Before the Dawn (New World, 1995)

With Ricardo Gallo's Tierra de Nadie

• The Great Fine Line (Clean Feed, 2011)

WithDennis González NY Quartet

• Dance of the Soothsayer's Tongue (Live at Tonic) (Clean Feed, 2007)
• NY Midnight Suite (Clean Feed, 2004)

WithJerome Harris

• Algorithms (Minor, 1986)

WithGerry Hemingway

• The Whimbler (Clean Feed, 2005)
• Outerbridge Crossing (Sound Aspects, 1989)
• Kwambe (Auricle, 1978)

With Peter Herborn

• Traces of Trane (JMT, 1992)

With David Lopato

• Inside Outside (Enemy, 1991)

WithJoe Lovano

• Rush Hour (Blue Note, 1994)

WithMichael Moore

• Bering (Ramboy, 1998)
• Chicoutimi (Ramboy, 1994)
• Home Game (Ramboy, 1992)

WithSimon Nabatov

• The Master and Margarita (Leo, 2001)
• Tough Customer (Enja, 1993)

With Operazone (Bill Laswell-Alan Douglas-Karl Berger-Project)

• The Redesign (Knitting Factory, 2000)

WithJim Pepper

• Comin' and Goin' (Europa, 1983)

WithBobby Previte

• Music of the Moscow Circus (Gramavision, 1991)

WithEnrico Rava

• Flat Fleet (Philology, 2005)

WithDewey Redman

• The Struggle Continues (ECM, 1982)
• Musics (Galaxy, 1978)
• Soundsigns (Galaxy, 1978)

With Joe Rosenberg

• Do What We Must Do (CIMP, 2002)

WithRoswell Rudd andHeather Masse

• August Love Song (Red House, 2016)

WithSamo Šalamon

• Government Cheese (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007; rec. 2004)
• Two Hours (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006; rec. 2004)

WithDave Schnitter

• Glowing (Muse, 1981)

• Mark Helias official site

• 1950 births
• Living people
• Musicians from New Brunswick, New Jersey
• American jazz double-bassists
• American male double-bassists
• American jazz composers
• American male jazz composers
• Sarah Lawrence College faculty
• Rutgers University alumni
• CIMP artists
• Enja Records artists
• Yale University alumni
• 21st-century American double-bassists
• 21st-century American male musicians
• Intakt Records artists
• MNRK Music Group artists
• NoBusiness Records artists

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