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Hershberger’s lines sound of influences from Coltrane’s later period to Eric Dolphy, with a little overtone of Rollins at moments and a whole bunch of experimental sounds and styles.
-Carmel DeSoto, Jazz Police
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Mark Hershberger, the leader of the Global Jazz Project (formerly Global Jazz Trio) was born and raised in the Detroit Michigan area. His history includes performing and composing jazz over the last 40 years both regionally and nationally. He is fortunate to have studied jazz saxophone with Sam Sanders and was mentored and performed with musical legends such as Harold McKinney, Jimmy Allen, Marcus Belgrave, Doc Holiday, Badal Roy, Don Sinta and Ed Sarath just to name a few. His history also includes playing horns for Detroit Motown scene backing up artists like STAX legends “Sam & Dave” at various Detroit appearances. He also performed with Thad Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton while playing with the Oakland University AFRAM Big Band and with Michael Colone in the futuristic jazz group Prismatic Band. Mark also played with legendary New Orleans vocalist Corliss Randall in London Soho district at “Jazz After Dark” in 08.
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Richard Harding Smith, Electric and acoustic bass, electro-sintir and vocals Richard is a versatile player, capable of anything from straight-up blues to improvised, avante garde jazz. Born in Philadelphia PA, his earliest influences were classical recordings in glorious monophonic high-fidelity, along with liturgical music, movie themes and environmental sound. He started playing country bars at age 16, but his exposure to dissonance andatonality in contemporary jazz and orchestral music drove a strong interest in improvisation. He formed a blues-oriented improvisational rock band with high school buddies that included guitarist Bob Sabellico (The Guess Who; producer for Bela Fleck and others). He later played in various East Coast psychedelic rock bands, performed with singer-songwriters in styles ranging from blues and gospel to country and alt-bluegrass, and has performed both traditional and modern jazz with players in the East and Midwest. He recognizes the key role of the bass in structure and support, both for arranged and free music.
A recent reviewer (Buzz Krantz) said of his work with Peter Madcat Ruth’s Cosmic Navigators: “Richard is called 'the Glue' because he glues everything together. I think they should change his name to "Superglue." His playing today reflects a lifetime of musical influences, the flow of cosmic energy, and the ability to have a really good time.
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Muruga Booker, percussion
Muruga, born Steven Bookvich a.k.a. Steven Booker has performed and jammed with many greats including Weather Report, Hal McKinney, Art Blakey, Badal Roy, Dizzy Gillespie (in the 1960's,) Dave Brubeck and Perry Robinson in the MBR jazz trio. Booker has jammed with Pharoah Sanders at Yohsi’s in San Francisco, California. He has also played and recorded with the Paul Winter Consort on A&M Records as well as with the Brubeck Generation, including Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Booker has performed with jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter at the MAC World convention in Anaheim, California. Muruga’s credits also include playing on the Grammy nominated album by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia, Blues from the Rainforest. Booker shares the newest 2005 Chesky Record Release Circle of Drums with Babatunde Olatunji and Sikiru Adepoju in the World fusion CD that brings the flow of drums into your soul.
His signature ability to create a rich tapestry of world beats using his incredible percussionist talents has allowed him to foster greater awareness of free funk, world jazz, blues, jazz, rock, Latin, ethnic music and the healing effects of a global music.
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Michael Colone, aka Michael On Fire was the co-founder of Prismatic, a band that helped to extend the parameters of instrumental and improvisational music in Detroit. In 1980, Michael moved to Los Angeles. Because of legal complications due to a recording contract he started performing under the name “Michael On Fire”, he tours the world playing mostly solo in the singer songwriter genre, his association with Global Jazz Trio and Project founder Mark Hershberger goes back to the early days of Prismatic when they co-composed radical rhythm driven thematic music. Michael continues touring and has become an in demand studio session player.
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Andy Szadyr, piano player extraordinaire is a Michigan based musician with a diverse cultural and musical background. Born in Detroit, the son of Ukrainian, post WW II refugees, Szadyr was exposed to a wide variety of musical genres from childhood. He began performing as both vocalist and instrumentalist with the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus and later expanded his abilities to include the study of piano. Szadyr was an early student participant at Oakland University’s Jazz Studies Program where he studied with Harold McKinney, Ray Pickens, and Doc Holliday, and performed with the likes of Marcus Belgrave, Jimmy Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, and other Jazz legends. He continued his classical musical education at Wayne State University, studying piano under Misha Kottler and Boris Maximovich, and voice under Dr. Harry Langsford, under whose mentorship he performed at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center.
“I appreciate all types of music but my favorite has always been Jazz.”
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