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Long Bio
Taylor Ho Bynum, performer on cornet and various brass instruments,
composer and bandleader, was born in Baltimore, MD in 1975 and raised
in Boston. While in high school, he began studying under the direction
of the trombonist and educator Bill Lowe, whom Bynum continues to
work with to this day. Bynum attended Wesleyan University, graduating
with a BA in music in 1998 and a MA in Composition in 2005, where
he studied with saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton.
Bynum has established a reputation as a unique musical voice willing
to take chances in a variety of artistic contexts. Critics have
called him “a strong cornetist and serious-minded composer
with experimental tendencies” (The New York Times) and “an
agile and creative improviser who sounds like no one but himself”
(JazzTimes). His projects cover a wide range of artistic expression:
from ensembles in the jazz tradition, to work with DJs, contemporary
classical composers and world music ensembles, to composing for
film and theater, to collaborations with dancers and visual artists.
His present working ensembles are SpiderMonkey Strings (consisting
of the unusual instrumentation of cornet, string quartet, electric
guitar, tuba, vibraphone, and drums, with Jason Kao Hwang, Jessica
Pavone, Stephanie Griffin, Tomas Ulrich, Pete Fitzpatrick, Joe Daley,
Jay Hoggard, and Luther Gray), his Sextet (with Matt Bauder on reeds,
Mary Halvorson and Evan O’Reilly on electric guitars, Jessica
Pavone on viola and electric bass, and Tomas Fujiwara on drums),
and his Trio (with Halvorson and Fujiwara). He has also developed
a body of solo music for cornet and duo work with dancer/choreographer
Rachel Bernsen. Bynum's 2005 CD with SpiderMonkey Strings, Other
Stories (Three Suites), has been described as “the best
album of the year” (All About Jazz) and “beautiful music
and challenging throughout” (The Wire). Two new CDs were released
in Spring ’07: True Events (duo with Tomas Fujiwara;
The New York Times calls it “a scintillating album... a duologue
crackling with improvisational energy but guided by compositional
prescription”), and The Middle Picture (with his
Sextet and Trio; which received “four stars” from Downbeat
Magazine).
In addition to leading his own groups, Bynum regularly performs
with a host of leading figures in creative music, and is featured
on over forty recordings. He has performed throughout the United
States, Canada, Argentina, and Europe, including the UK, France,
Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium,
and Norway.
His work with Anthony Braxton ranges from duo to orchestra, most
recently touring throughout Europe and North America with Braxton’s
Sextet and Trio, performing a four night stand in NYC with his (12+1)tet,
co-conducting Braxton’s Ulrichsberg Tri-Centric Ensemble in
Austria, co-conducting the premiere of his Composition 19 for 100
Tubas in New York City, and performing and organizing the premiere
of Braxton’s Composition 103 for Seven Trumpets. Their CD
Duets (Wesleyan) 2002 has received wide critical acclaim,
and Bynum is featured on several other Braxton recordings, most
recently Quintet (London) 2004, Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005,
4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005, and 9 Compositions
(Iridium) 2006.
He is a member of the legendary pianist Cecil Taylor’s large
ensemble; this group has been together for four years and is regularly
featured at NYC’s Iridium Jazz Club, including a weeklong
celebration of Mr. Taylor’s 75th birthday in 2004, as seen
in the documentary film All the Notes.
He has been a member of The Fully Celebrated Orchestra (led by saxophonist/composer
Jim Hobbs, with bassist Timo Shanko and drummer Django Carranza)
since 1999, declared Boston's best jazz group by the Boston Globe,
the Boston Music Awards, and the Boston Phoenix. The quartet’s
music is documented on the 2002 CD Marriage of Heaven and Earth
and 2004’s Lapis Exilis.
He is also presently performing in a collaborative group called
OtherTet with trombonist/tubaist Bill Lowe, bassist/guitarist Joe
Morris and drummer Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng, and co-leading a double
trio with trumpeter Stephen Haynes. He also performs with violinist
Jason Kao Hwang’s Edge Quartet, kotoist/composer Miya Masaoka,
trumpeter Nate Wooley, and composer Laura Andel, Ghanaian master
drummer Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng’s band, the avant-salsa group
Zemog el Gallo Bueno, and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (led by Mark
Harvey).
Past collaborations include the collective ensembles Paradigm Shift
(with fellow brass multi-instrumentalists Stephen Haynes, Bill Lowe,
and Joseph Daley, and percussionists Warren Smith and Syd Smart),
Trio Ex Nihilo (with cellist Jeff Song and drummer Curt Newton),
and a duo with percussionist Eric Rosenthal. All of these collaborations
have resulted in critically acclaimed recordings and concert and
festival appearances.
Other performance and recording credits include work under the leadership
of Bill Dixon, Anthony Davis, Fred Ho, Alan Silva, Joe Morris, J.D.
Parran, Elliot Sharp, Warren Smith, Jay Hoggard, Alvin Batiste,
The John Coltrane Memorial Ensemble, The Sound and Vision Orchestra,
the Bill Lowe/Carl Atkins Big Band (aka the Boston Jazz Repertory
Orchestra), Pheeroan akLaff, Joe Fonda, Matana Roberts, Adam Lane,
Andrew Drury, Carlo Actis Dato, Bhob Rainey, Charlie Kohlhase, Ehran
Elisha, Nate McBride, Naftule's Dream, Harris Eisenstadt, Guillermo
E. Brown, poets Patricia Smith and Jon Sinclair, choreographers
Pedro Alejandro and Hari Krishnan, filmmaker Leigh Dana Jackson,
and many others.
Bynum is also deeply involved with the arts community as an educator
and producer. He has taught all ages, from kindergarten through
college, has produced festivals and concert series. He is a founding
partner of Firehouse 12 Records, and is on the board of several
non-profit arts organizations, including Y’All of New York,
Inc, and the Festival of New Trumpet Music. Bynum was an Artist-in-Residence
at the 2005 Antwerp (Belgium) Free Music Festival, a 2004 Fellow
at the Art Omi International Music Residency, and a 2003 Nominee
for the Alpert Award for the Arts.
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