Twisting the Classics: Mark Feldman

IT'S A GOOD BET you've been exposed to the music of violinist Marc Feldman.

The classically trained Nashville session man turned Lower East Side jazz hand has appeared on more than 350 recordings, performing alongside such diverse artists as Johnny Cash and John Zorn.

These days the Brooklyn-based musician can readily be heard performing the latter's compositions as a member of the Bar Kokhba string ensemble, or as a member of the John Abercrombie Quartet with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer (and fellow Zorn accomplice) Joey Baron.

Feldman's forte is jazz and classical fusion, but his craft is not overly steeped in one idiom or the other.

"I've tried to develop my own voice and language that lies somewhere between the two poles," Feldman said.

His musical development accelerated after leaving Nashville for New York City in 1986, just as the music industry was beginning to change the way it did business.

"When I was doing studio work, the industry was in high gear, with big productions and very few self-produced ventures," Feldman said.

The connections he made behind the scenes and as a member of country music touring ensembles for Loretta Lynn and Ray Price paid off, and soon he was working with artists with a similar passion for experimentation and methodical musical evolution — even if, initially, that meant They Might Be Giants or Swans.

"New York City is still the center for arts and culture," Feldman insisted.

The long-time collaborator (and occasional concertmaster) has released only a handful of recordings of his own music under his own name, either as a solo artist or band leader. However, the most notable of those, "Music for Violin Alone," released on Zorn's Tzadik imprint in 1997, and 2006's "What Exit," his first leader date for ECM, helped further Feldman's virtuosic reputation.

Earlier this year, he was awarded the Alpert Award in the Arts — as in Herb — for achieving extraordinary artistic transformation. "A big cash prize," Feldman was quick to say. For someone twice-deemed "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" by Down Beat magazine, the award says a lot about the way music critics and fans have come to view the violinist.

At Twins Jazz on Wednesday, Feldman will be joined by his closest collaborator — his wife, Swiss-born pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier. Like her husband, Courvoisier is classically trained but also inclined to improvisation. She is also the leader of her own quintet, Lonelyville, and the Abaton trio, both of which include Feldman on violin.

The duo can be expected to pull from the Zorn playbook as well as perform original material. But whatever they decide to play, it will surely be free of compartmentalization and transcendent any notation.

» Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW; Wed., 8 p.m., $10-$30; 202-234-0072. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo by Valerie Trucchia