MARA ROSENBLOOM

Pianist, composer, & bandleader Mara Rosenbloom has been called “a whole-hearted poet of the piano,” – she is a builder & a synthesist; a fiercely lyrical composer & improviser (All About Jazz).

 

Originally from Wisconsin, Rosenbloom has spent the past decade in New York City, creating a distinctive body of work and establishing herself as a vibrant and respected part of the city’s diverse network of jazz & improvised music communities. Following the release of Prairie Burn (Fresh Sound/New Talent), Rosenbloom’s debut trio release with bassist Sean Conly & drummer Chad Taylor, The New York Times cast a spotlight on Rosenbloom, heralding Prairie Burn as a “…a trio recording of bristling provocation and full-bore group improvising…her strongest statement as a bandleader and her most dauntless effort as a pianist.” The album received a rare 4.5 stars from Downbeat Magazine, earning it a spot on the Magazine’s Best Albums of 2017 list. New York Music Daily praised the album as “[Rosenbloom's] quantum leap into greatness. An absolutely feral, largely improvisational suite...unbridled ferocity and a remarkable chemistry.” The following May, the trio made their Jazz at Lincoln Center debut, performing to a sold out house at Dizzy’s Jazz Club Coca-Cola. The following January, the group made a splash at New York City’s Winter Jazzfest, performing to a packed house, and receiving critical acclaim from Nate Chinen at WBGO, and The New York City Jazz Record.

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In early 2020 The Mara Rosenbloom Trio was awarded The Chamber Music America Performance Plus Grant, which afforded Rosenbloom the opportunity to develop & record new material under the mentorship of luminary composer/improviser/pianist Amina Claudine Myers, leading to the Mara Rosenbloom Trio's second release Respiration, which was again noted for it's "brilliant band interplay," Simon Sweetman, Off The Tracks (New Zealand), “thoroughly personal & unique” sound (Jazziz Magazine), and featured on Nate Chinen's WBGO'S Take Five playlist. 

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Beyond her trio, Rosenbloom also leads Flyways, an ensemble featuring Anaïs Maviel on voice & surdo drum, and Rashaan Carter on bass. The group's premier work, "I know what I dreamed" sets the text of one of Adrienne Rich's 21 Love Poems to melody, and extends it into a set length work, balancing composed narrative within a dynamic level of improvisation. The ensemble released their first record Murmuration into the pandemic in 2019 (Fresh Sound/New Talent). Despite an inability to tour, Downbeat Magazine remarkably praised the ensemble for it's "enormous tenderness," with other listeners noting their “extraordinary level of communal listening and intuitive response” (John Chacona, Let’s Call This). In 2022 Rosenbloom was again selected to receive Chamber Music America's Performance Plus Grant, this time pairing her ensemble Flyways with Artist-Educator Cooper-Moore. After a series of sessions with Cooper-Moore, the ensemble recorded at Figure 8 Studio in Brooklyn, and their latest recording Mutualism is set to be released in late 2025 / early 2026. 

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Beyond her work as a leader, Rosenbloom is a member of the new collective free improvising ensemble XXE (feat: Gabby Fluke-Mogul & Tcheser Holmes), heralded as “a celebration of improvisation and all its possibilities” (An Earful Livelog, Jeremy Shatan), as well as the collective trio Siren Xypher (feat: Melanie Dyer & Kyoko Kitamura) whose work was recently lauded as "stunning" on BBC Radio 3.

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Rosenbloom's contributions to other folk's records has expanded in recent years. She has performed and recorded with William Hooker, contributing to his last two releases Symphonie of Flowers (ORG MUSIC 2020) & Big Moon (ORG MUSIC 2021); William Parker, contributing to the first CD of his recent 10 CD box set Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World (AUM Fidelity 2021), and performing in concert for his two night presentation of Trail of Tears Continuum; Michael TA Thompson Ensemble; Stephen Gauci (Pandemic Duets/Gauci Music 2020), Dawn Drake’s Global Funk ensemble ZapOte, The Katie Bull Project, and a variety of improvising collaborators including Sam Newsome, Ras Moshe Burnett, Emilie Lesbros, Oxana Chi, Layla Zami, Andrew Drury, Ken Filiano, Devin Gray, & Alex Beckmann. Her mentors at the piano include the incomparable Cooper-Moore, and the late improvising pianist & life force Connie Crothers.

 

Rosenbloom is a 2022 OneBeat Alumni - a program of the US State Department and Found Sound Nation, which brings together artists from all over the world to create work in the spirit of building community through the arts.