Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus

A San Francisco native who got his start in the Bay Area, Formanek established himself on New York’s experimental-minded Downtown scene in the early 1980s. Often hired by post-bop stars like Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, he introduced his advanced compositional approach with his 1990 debut album Wide Open Spaces featuring saxophonist Greg Osby. He’s recorded a series of bracing albums for Europeans labels like Enja, Soul Note and ECM, which released his latest and most ambitious undertaking, Ensemble Kolossus’s 2016 debut The Distance. The project centers on his eight-part “Exoskeleton” suite, a work that maintains an exhilarating balance between structure and freedom while referencing a century of multifarious orchestral jazz idioms. The ensemble features longtime Formanek collaborators Tim Berne, Ralph Alessi, and fellow bass master Mark Helias conducting the proceedings.