Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom has been developing her unique voice on the soprano saxophone for over 30 years. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, as well as the possessor of "one of the most gorgeous tones and hauntingly lyrical ballad conceptions of any soprano saxophonist - Pulse." Bloom has continued to expand her musical universe with each new project that she has undertaken.

Her continuing commitment to "pushing the envelope" in her music has led to collaborations with such outstanding jazz artists as Kenny Wheeler, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Rufus Reid, Billy Hart, Bob Brookmeyer, Julian Priester, Jerry Granelli, Jay Clayton, Mark Dresser, Bobby Previte, & Fred Hersch. She's also spearheaded a collaborative world music group, "Atlantic/ Pacific Wave" featuring world music virtuosi Min Xioa-Fen on Chinese pipa, Jin Hi Kim on Korean komungo, and Mark Dresser on bass. She has performed at such diverse venues as the National Air & Space Museum's Einstein Planetarium, Carnegie Hall, MOMA, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grace Cathedral, Town Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Space Center, the Houston Astrodome, and jazz clubs world-wide. She premiered new works for her quartet at festivals including Jazz at Lincoln Center's Women in Jazz Festival, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Lawrence Arts Center (KS), the Lensic Theatre, (NM), and the Moore Performing Arts Center (OH) as well as major international performances at Wigmore Hall (London), the Willisau, Montreal, Free Jazz (Brazil), Lisbon, Berlin and
Paris Jazz Festivals.

She was recently awarded a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition. Winner of the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime achievement in jazz, the Jazz Journalists Award and Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for Jazz Innovation, she is the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program, and was also honored by having an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083janeirabloom).

A strong visual thinker, Bloom's affinity for other art forms has lead to collaborations with other innovative artists such as actors Venessa Redgrave (United Nations Conference), Joanne Woodward (Westport Playhouse), Brian Dennehy (NBC TV), dancer/ choreographer Carmen deLavallade (Joyce Theater), director Jonathan Sayles (Silver City), and painter Dan Namingha (NASA Art Program). Her compositions are performed worldwide by the Pilobolus Dance Company and her music for choreographer Carmen deLavallade is currently being performed by the Philadanco and Paradigm Dance Companies. Carmen and Jane recently premiered a new work for jazz quartet and dancer at NY City Center's sold out 2007 Fall for Dance Festival. She is the recipient of numerous composition & performance grants. She has composed for the St Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Town Hall New Riffs Series premiering new works for large ensemble involving her signature movement techniques. The Philadelphia Music Project commissioned her 2004 premiere of Unexpected Light - a unique collaboration of improvised sound & light with world renowned lighting designer James F. Ingalls at the Sedgwick Cultural Center in Philadelphia. She received two Doris Duke/ Chamber Music America New Jazz Works awards; one for the creation of "Chasing Paint" a series of compositions inspired by Jackson Pollock's action painting that premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and another for the creation of the Mental Weather project.

"Sometimes I throw sound around the band like paint and other times I play and feel as if I was carving silence like a sculptor."

She was awarded a Kayden visiting artist fellowship at Harvard University and was a keynote speaker and featured artist at the Improvising America Conference held at the University of Kansas and the International Society of Improvising Musicians Conference at Northwestern University last year.

Bloom has been the subject of a number of media profiles; she has been featured on CBS TV's Sunday Morning, Talkin' Jazz on NBC-TV, TIME Magazine's Women: The Road Ahead special issue, in the publication Jazzwomen: Conversations w/ 21 Musicians on Indiana University Press, in the Library of Congress Women Who Dare 2007 calendar, in Life Magazine's "Living Jazz Legends" photo, in Gilles Corre's French TV documentary Women in Jazz, on NPR's Morning Edition, Jazzset , Live From the Kennedy Center w/ Dr. Billy Taylor, and in the documentary film Reed Royalty hosted by Branford Marsalis.

She has recorded and produced 13 albums of her music, founding her own Outline record label in 1976 and later recording for ENJA, JMT, CBS, Arabesque & Artistshare Records. She's come full circle today with her latest Mental Weather CD appearing on the original Outline label that she began when she first started her career in New Haven, CT. Her electro-acoustic band brings together fellow 70's New Havenite Mark Helias on bass, drummer Matt Wilson, and Seattle new comer Dawn Clement on keyboards for Bloom's most recent project. The band recorded Mental Weather after premiering the piece in NYC with the support of the Chamber Music America/ Doris Duke new jazz works program. Then Bloom brought the band into Avatar Studio B with audio engineering legend Jim Anderson for two days in June and laid down nine thrilling tracks, from the exquisite ballad "A More Beautiful Question" to the kinetic romp of "Electrochemistry" to her signature solo performance of Richard Rodger's classic "This Nearly Was Mine." The CD also features an mp3 downloadable version of the music played as one continuous set the way the band performs in concert.

The quartet first performed together in New York City in 2004. Jane has known bassist Mark Helias since the 1970's New Haven creative music scene. Mark's presence augments the strong rhythmic foundation of music that integrates live electronic sound into the fabric of the quartet. She's also found a kindred spirit in drummer Matt Wilson whose trio and quartet collaborations with her date back to NYC dates in early 2001. Pianist Dawn Clement first filled the piano chair in the quartet in Seattle in 2004 and has been performing with Jane ever since.

"I feel like this band has really taken my music from outer to inner space."

Bloom resides in New York City and is currently on the faculty of the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. She holds degrees from Yale University and Yale School of Music and studied saxophone with woodwind virtuoso Joseph Viola. Nat Hentoff has called Bloom an artist "beyond category. Bill Milkowski has described her as "a true jazz original...a restlessly creative spirit, and a modern day role model for any aspiring musician who dares to follow his or her own vision."

website: http://www.janeirabloom.com