HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN 1998:

 
MARK NAUSEEF: In March, Mark was a featured soloist with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Joachim Kühn and the late J.F. Jenny Clark in Cologne. In April he was in Istanbul, recording with the ney maestro Kudsi Erguner and other noted Turkish Sufi musicians. In May Nauseef was touring with Rabih Abou-Khalil (including the Nürnberg Festival). In July Mark was at the Studio Zerkall recording with Walter Quintus and Michel Godard, featuring electro - acoustic music with home - made electronics and live digital processing. Early in September he returned to Istanbul for a concert with Kudsi Erguner, Turkish classical musicians, Christof Lauer and Michel Godard, immediately followed by a recording and live concert at the WDR (Cologne) with Tony Oxley and orchestra featuring Derek Bailey, Gavin Bryars, Phil Minton and others. In October Mark took part in the Donaueschingen Musiktage (featuring also John Bergamo), and then toured with Sylvie Courvoisier's "Ocre", including a performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival. 1998 saw a number of new CD releases which feature Nauseef, including Michel Godard's "Una Mora" (on Label Hopi) and "Sous Les Voûtes, Le Serpent....." (on M.A).

MIROSLAV TADIC: In April and May Miroslav was on tour with Maria João Quartet (playing Vienna, München, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Montreal among other places). He then traveled to Buenos Aires where he performed and recorded with the composer and multi-instrumentalist Santiago Vazquez. In the beginning of June Tadic returned to Los Angeles for performances with Macedonian guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski, marking the release of their CD "Krushevo" (M.A Recordings), and then continued on to Japan for concerts and recording with singer Jadranka. On October 16th Tadic and Stefanovski presented "Krushevo" to the Macedonian public by opening the prestigious Skopje Jazz Festival. Miroslav then went on to play another tour with Maria João (in October - November), which included performances at the Leverkusen Jazztage, The Maastricht Music Festival and the Royal Festival Hall in London. Currently, Miroslav is back at his teaching post at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

LOOSE WIRES: After spending nearly a year involved in separate projects, our trio with tubist Michel Godard (the band is called Loose Wires) met for a truly extraordinary project: in early December we spent a week recording with the 22 piece Big Band of the North German Radio. We were also joined by Walter Quintus who did live electronic sound manipulations while overlooking the entire recording process. The result is big band music the likes of which you've never heard, considerably closer to early Stockhausen, Xenakis and Jimi Hendrix than to Count Basey, Tommy Dorsey or even Gil Evans. We are hoping that it will be released sometime this year, and will keep you posted.

 
  
1999 AND 2000:

Nauseef had a very busy and challenging recording schedule in December 2000, resulting in:

A new solo record

A duo record with Markus Stockhausen and
a duo record with Kudsi Erguner, using Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan bells

A new record of the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble, featuring guitarist Nguyen Le and bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons

Miroslav Tadic finished a 32 concert tour with Maria João Quartet in July 1999. The tour included sold - out performances at major jazz and world music festivals in France, Germany, Italy and Norway. In October Tadic and Macedonian guitar virtuoso Vlatko Stefanovski promoted their recently released CD "Krushevo" in concert at the Sava Centar, Yugoslavia's largest concert hall, for an audience of 4500 people. The recording of this concert, titled "Live in Belgrade" was just released in May by Third Ear Music. At this moment it is a limited European release, and you can obtain it through the Third Ear Music web site.
In February - March 2000 Miroslav took part in New Jazz Meeting in Germany, playing the challenging and inspiring music by two of Europe's most noted musicians of the younger generation, Steffen Schorn and Claudio Puntin. The band included some old friends and great players like percussionist Leonice Shinneman, harmonica king Howard Levy and pianist Jovino Santos Neto.
In July Tadic taught and performed at the Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, including a concert of improvisations with Dusan Bogdanovic. A sold-out tour of Slovenia and Croatia followed with Vlatko Stefanovski, culminating in concerts in Zagreb and Dubrovnik.

Due to scheduling difficulties our plans for recording and performing in a group with David Torn, Steve Swallow and Bill Bruford have been suspended, but not canceled.

Mark Nauseef completed work on several recordings which include solo work as well as collaborations with Kudsi Erguner and Markus Stockhausen. In July, Nauseef and Kudsi Erguner premiered La Banda Alla Turka, a new piece for 15 musicians including classical musicians from Turkey and musicians from Europe such as Tomasz Stanko, Christof Lauer, and others. The premiere took place at the renowned Beiteddine Festival in Beirut, Lebanon. Mark then returned to Germany to play a handful of duo concerts with Markus Stockhausen. He is currently preparing for a trio recording and performance with contra-bassist Joelle Leandre and trombone player George Lewis, and a WDR recording and performance with The Kudsi Erguner Ensemble, singers of the Sufi tradition, and guest soloists.

Miroslav Tadic spent the summer concertizing in his old homelands of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia, both as a soloist and in duos with saxophonist Peter Epstein and guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski. In October and November Tadic and Stefanovski went on to open the 5th Jazz Festival in Sarajevo, followed by a short tour of Germany.