Bio

JESSE ZUBOT is one of those unique musicians/producers whose praxis spans multiple genres and transcends contextualization into an idiom. Between moments of impassioned, visceral outburst and quite emotive sensitivies, Zubot exposes the full range of affects through a pristine sonic architecture. Zubot a 3-time Juno Award winning musician/producer with avant-rock band Fond of Tigers (2011), chamber folk-jazz ensemble The Great Uncles of the Revolution (2004) and roots instrumentalists Zubot & Dawson (2003). Zubot produced the Polaris Music Prize winning album 'ANIMISM' by Tanya Tagaq which was released in 2014. This album also garnered Zubot a nomination for 'Producer of the Year' at the 2015's Juno Awards. In the fall of 2010 Jesse won the 'Multimedia' award for his work on the score for Tungijuq (w/ Tanya Tagaq) at the 2010 Western Canadian Music Awards. Tungijuq was produced by Isuma (Atanarjuat) and was selected for Sundance, The Toronto Film Festival and the ImagineNATIVE film festival where it won for Best Short. Zubot has also composed extensively for modern dance. A recent highlight was the presentation of Body Scan (Choreographed by Benoit Lachambre & Su-Feh Lee : Score by Jesse Zubot) at the prestigious Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. In the past decade Jesse has delved heavily into the world of improvised and creative music having worked with the likes of Francois Houle, Tanya Tagaq, Peggy Lee, Evan Parker, Eugene Chadbourne, Mats Gustafsson, Matthew Bourne, Dylan van der Schyff, Joe Fonda, Fred Frith, Eyvind Kang and Nels Cline and many others. In 2005 Zubot started Drip Audio ("...one of the most original musical operations in the country." - CBC Arts Online), a record label dedicated to creative music. Drip Audio now has 35 albums under it's umbrella by musicians from Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York and the UK. Zubot is also sought after in the contemporary/commercial music world and has been a guest musician working with artists such as Dan Mangan, Destroyer, Mira Calix, Hawksley Workman, Kelly Joe Phelps, Veda Hille, Amy Millan, Alpha Yaya Diallo, Mother Mother and Stars. J Zubot was named 'Violinist of the Year' at Canada's National Jazz Awards in '03, '08 and '09 and has also been commissioned by the CBC to write symphonies & arrangements for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia.

In 2014 Jesse premiered his first full string quartet at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in conjuction with Vancouver's Western Front for the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award. 2014 also saw the release of 'Hector and the Search for Happiness', a feature film starring Simon Pegg, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard and Rosamund Pike in which Jesse did the score for with Vancouver's Dan Mangan. Jesse composed and arranged music for the film that was performed by the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany). This score was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in January 2015.

Some of Jesse's performance highlights in the past few years include ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark), Time-Based Arts Festival (Portand, OR), Luminato Festival (Toronto, ON), Festival International du Film Insulaire de Groix (Iles de Groix, France), End of the Road Festival (Wiltshire, UK), Expo (Shanghai, China), WOMAD (Australia / New Zealand), Druga Godba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), WOMAD (Wiltshire, UK), Festival of World Cultures (Dublin, Ireland), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Kronos in Glasgow (Glasgow, UK), London International Festival of Exporatory Music (London, UK), The Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey, CA), The Winnipeg New Music Festival, Festival International de Musique Actuelle (Victoriavillle, Quebec), The Mulhouse Music Festival (Mulhouse, France), Era Jazzu (Poland), The Montreal International Jazz Festival, the New York Guitar Festival, The Guelph Jazz Festival, Traz & Folk Fest (Rudolstadt, Germany), The Vancouver International Jazz Festival, The Calgary Folk Festival, Spilimbergo Folkfest (Italy) and The Atlantic Jazz Festival (Halifax, NS).

Production & Recording (Selected Discography)
Jesse Zubot has produced many of his own recordings, as well as recordings for other artists. He likes to use many different production techniques; from producing solo to co-producing with the artist. Some of his credits include:

Tanya Tagaq - Retribution - Six Shooter 2016 - Producer / Mixing
Fond of Tigers - Uninhabit - Offseason/Drip Audio 2016 - Co-Producer / Co-Mixing
Copilots - Sunstroke - Drip Audio 2014 - Producer / Co-Mixing
Tanya Tagaq - Animism - Six Shooter 2014 - Producer / Mixing
*** POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE WINNER 2014
Tony Wilson 6Tet - A Day's Life - Drip Audio 2014 - Co-Producer / Co-Mixing
The Sands - Beast To Bone - Independent 2014 - Producer / Mixing
Flatback - The Harmonic Circus - Northern Electric 2011 - Producer / Mixing
Fond of Tigers - Continent & Western - Drip Audio 2010 - Co-Producer / Mixing
*** JUNO AWARD WINNER 2011- (Instrumental Category)
Alpha Yaya Diallo - Immé - Jericho Beach 2010 - Co-Producer / Mixing
*** WCMA AWARD WINNER 2010 (World Music Category)
Viviane Houle - Treize - Drip Audio 2010 - Producer / Mixing
Ndidi Onukwulu - Move Together - Naïve 2009 (European Release) - Producer (3 tracks)
Inhabitants - The Furniture Moves Underneath - Drip Audio 2007 - Co-Producer / Mixing
*** JUNO AWARD NOMINEE '09 - (Instrumental Category) - WCMA AWARD NOMINEE '08
Fond of Tigers - Release The Saviours - Drip Audio 2007 - Co-Producer / Mixing
Tony Wilson 6Tet - Pearls Before Swine - Drip Audio 2007 - Co-Producer / Mixing
ZMF Trio - Circle The Path - Drip Audio 2007 - Producer
Jesse Zubot - Dementia - Drip Audio 2006 - Producer / Mixing
*** WCMA AWARD NOMINEE '07 (Instrumental Category)
Tony Wilson - Horse's Dream - Drip Audio 2006 - Producer / Mixing
Zubotta - S/T - Drip Audio 2005 - Producer
Zubot & Dawson - Tractor Parts - Black Hen Music 2000 - Co-Producer
*** JUNO AWARD NOMINEE '01 - (Roots & Traditional Category)
*** WEST COAST MUSIC AWARD WINNER '01 - (Instrumental & Folk Categories)
Zubot & Dawson - Strang - Black Hen Music 1998 - Co-Producer
*** JUNO AWARD NOMINEE 1999 - (Roots & Traditional Category)

Jesse Zubot also works as a composer / sound recordist / session musician in film and here is his page at IMDb!

Current Working Projects

TANYA TAGAQ - A fully improvising trio featuring renowned Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. Tagaq has reinvented traditional Inuit throat singing, turning it into something modern, experimental and incredibly sensual. With her accomplices JEAN MARTIN (drums) and JESSE ZUBOT (violin), she delivers a performance where song meets improvisation, past meets present, and rock showmanship meets bold creativity.

ZMF TRIO - ZMF Trio straddles the lines somewhere between old-school free jazz, contemporary composition and improvisation. The music of ZMF Trio is as uncompromising and aggressive as it is beautifully serene. This multi-national trio is comprised of Jesse Zubot (violin/Vancouver), Jean Martin (drums/Toronto) and Joe Fonda (bass/New York).

FOND OF TIGERS - This Vancouver band features seven of Vancouver’s leading creative musicians, their nuances and layers explore musical possibilities that range from the smallest gesture of extended technique to full-on bombastic avant rock. Compelling, hypnotic, and absolutely post-everything, this double-drum-kit-led band’s exhilarating ordered chaos emerges from a visceral combination of meticulous odd-time composition and improvisational abandon.

JESSE ZUBOT (SOLO) - Jesse's current solo show combines solo improvised violin methods with minimal electronic-influenced sound design. The music stems from his current solo album Dementia.

Commissions

Score for "HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS" created with Dan Mangan. Starring Simon Pegg. Directed by Peter Chelsom. Released fall 2014.

Partial Score and Sound Design for "NeoIndigenA" performed at Enwave Theatre in Toronto, ON (May 1-3, 2014) - Choreographer: Santee Smith

Score for "BODY-SCAN 2 : Sweet Gyre" performed at Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver, B.C. (Feb. 14-16, 2013) - Choreographer: Su-Feh Lee & Benoit Lachambre

Score for short film "TURN" starring Rutger Hauer. Directed by Stu Gillies. Released in 2013

Score Music for short film "SPARKLING RIVER" directed by Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael. Released in 2013

Score Music for short film "BEAUTY MARK" directed by Mark Ratzlaff. Released in 2013

Score for short film "NEWCOMERS SWIM, EVERY FRIDAY" directed by Meghna Haldar. Released in 2013

Orchestral arrangements for DAN MANGAN concert with Symphony Nova Scotia. Performed Oct. 19th (2012).

Score for short film "BOL" directed by Meghna Haldar. Released in 2012

Orchestral arrangements for HAWKSLEY WORKMAN concert with Symphony Nova Scotia. Performed Sept. 30th & Oct. 1st (2011).

Score for "DUSK" performed at The Firehall in Vancouver, B.C. (2011) - Choreographer: Joe Laughlin

Composition entitled "THE REAR GUARD" with OLD MAN LUEDECKE for Symphony Nova Scotia performed by Symphony Nova Scotia (Feb. 20, 2009) *commissioned by the CBC.

Score for "LUNAR ROUGE" performed by The Tomorrow Collective at Vancouver's Dancing On The Edge festival (2008) & The Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival (June 2009) - Choreographer: Chick Snipper

Score for "BODY-SCAN" performed at Antipodes '08 Festival Des Arts Indisciplinaires (Brest, France: March 5-8, 2008), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France: March 25-28, 2009) & Festival Transamériques (Montreal, QC: May 30-June 1, 2009 )- Choreographer: Benoît Lachambre & Su-Feh Lee

Composition for "THE WHOLE BEAST" performed at Antipodes '08 Festival Des Arts Indisciplinaires (Brest, France: March 5-8, 2008) & Unodance (Victoria, BC: May 21-23, 2009) - Choreographer: Su-Feh Lee

Composition entitled "INTOLERABLE DISTANCE" for Winnipeg's New Music Festival performed by The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Feb. 7, 2008) *commissioned by the CBC.

Composition entitled "ROUNDS" for the Longest Night festival (Whitehorse, Yukon - Dec. 2007)

Score for "YOU ARE HERE" performed by The Tomorrow Collective at Vancouver's Dancing On The Edge festival (2006) - Choreographer: Susan Elliott *winner of People's Choice Award