LATE NIGHT GROOVE SERIES: STEVE JENKINS / MARK GUILIANA / NIR FELDER TRIO

FEATURING:
Steve Jenkins, bass
Mark Guiliana, drums
Nir Felder, guitar

Steve Jenkins has been involved with music since the age of three. One day he found a way to climb up to the piano in his parents' house and thus a relationship between the young Jenkins and the making of musical sounds began. After studying piano, trumpet, and dabbling on guitar for a while, Steve soon found his instrument (or perhaps it found him) when he discovered the electric bass at age 13. His logic for wanting to play bass was simple; he just couldn't decide between the drums or guitar. This partially explains where his eclectic, versatile approach to the instrument comes from.

In September 2004, Steve Jenkins released his first solo album--the critically acclaimed "mad science". It features David "Fuze" Fiuczynski, Adam Deitch, Jeff Bhasker, Sam Kininger, Charles Haynes and others. It is self-produced by Steve and world-class trumpeter/producer Dan Brantigan.

Some of the musicians that he has worked with include: David Fiuczynski, Vernon Reid, Screaming Headless Torsos, Dean Bowman, Sam Kininger, Adam Deitch, K'Alyn, MC Kabir, Steve Hunt, Eric Krasno(Soulive), Hiromi (telarc jazz recording artist), Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, John Blackwell (drummer for Prince), Sean Rickman, Federico Gonzalez Pena, and many others.

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According to Modern Drummer magazine, Mark Guiliana "may well be at the forefront of an exciting new style of drumming." The 28-year-old New Jersey native's unique and un-compromised approach to playing the drums has earned him international acclaim both as a leader and a sideman. Mark discovered his passion and natural talent for drumming at age 15 when he began studying with the great Joe Bergamini.

As an outlet for his compositions, Mark created HEERNT, his 'experimental-garage-jazz' trio based out of New York. The band's debut record, Locked In A Basement, was released in the spring of 2006 and was met with praise from critics and musicians alike. Legendary drummer Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) called the record "the most exuberant, dramatic, beautiful, sassy, genre-busting little outing that I've heard since I don't know when. Quite the most brilliant record you're going to hear for the foreseeable future, so I recommend immediate purchase. For drummers, its simply compulsory."

HEERNT remains Mark's main source of creative energy and is busy playing around the New York area in support of the record. Mark's most notable sideman work has come alongside world-renowned jazz bassist Avishai Cohen (of Chick Corea's Origin and New Trio).

Mark has been a member of Avishai's band since 2003 and has appeared on Avishai's last three studio albums and the soon to be released Live at the Blue Note , which will appear not only as a live record but also as a DVD.

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Guitarist Nir Felder has been fascinated by music since early youth, inspired in equal parts by MTV and the legacy of jazz. Originally from the greater New York area, Felder attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship before returning to New York to pursue a career in the arts. Now a guitar hero in his own right, Felder has performed, toured, and recorded with many leading lights in jazz and the performing arts, including Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Dave Douglas, John Scofield, Jason Moran, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Cindy Blackman, Mark Turner, Paquito D'Rivera, New York Yankee Bernie Williams, and Kenny Barron, as well as Academy Award winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's LABrynth Theater Company, and in notable venues throughout the US and Europe, including New York's own Radio City Music Hall and Village Vanguard. He can be heard most recently on Greg Osby's Inner Circle release "9 Levels", and on the soundtrack to the Samuel L.Jackson film "Soul Men".