MARK HELIAS

Bassist/composer Mark Helias embarked on an international performance career with the Anthony Braxton quartet after his studies with Homer Mensch at Rutgers University and the Yale School of Music (M.M. 1976). Since then he has enjoyed long musical associations with Edward Blackwell, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Marcel Khalife, Ray Anderson, Don Cherry, and Gerry Hemingway. His eleven-album discography includes Split Image (1984), The Current Set (1987), Desert Blue (1989), Attack The Future (1992), Loopin’ the Cool (1995), Fictionary (1998), Come Ahead Back (1998), New School (2001), Verbs of Will (2004), Atomic Clock (2006), and Strange Unison (2008).

Helias is a prolific composer, having written music for two feature films as well as chamber pieces and works for large ensemble and big band. He has also produced numerous recordings for other artists on various labels. His trio, Open Loose, with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, has become an archetypal improvising ensemble on the New York scene. Helias performs solo bass concerts and can also be heard in the innovative bass duo, “The Marks Brothers”, with fellow bassist Mark Dresser. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School University, and SIM (School for Improvised Music).