GORDON GRDINA'S EAST VAN STRINGS - The Breathing of Statues
Songlines | 2009

Featuring Gordon Grdina on electric guitar & oud, Jesse Zubot on violin, Eyvind Kang on viola and Peggy Lee on cello. This is the debut recording of this lauded guitarist/oud player's all-string quartet, playing original compositions and improvs inspired by Bartok, Webern, Berg, free jazz and Arabic taqasim. For this disc he has put together an extraordinary all-star string trio to collaborate with, each with an impressive amount of diverse talents and experiences. - Downtown Music Gallery

FOND OF TIGERS - Release The Saviours
Drip Audio | 2007

Fond of Tigers’ second album, Release the Saviours is an ambitious and focused synthesis of mathy freakouts, off-kilter jazz, ambient sound sculpture, abstract improvisation, and a rare feel for making music that is both challenging and highly listenable.

"...a beacon of hope in a year plagued by an excess of dull music." - Tiny Mix Tapes

TONY WILSON 6TET - Pearls Before Swine
Drip Audio | 2007

This debut release from the Tony Wilson 6Tet is the first documentation of the ongoing musical investigations this group started four years ago.

"...the kind of fearless music-making that spits in the face of too-polite conservatism and keeps the experimental fire of iconoclasts like Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler burning." - textura.org

ZMF TRIO - Circle The Path
Drip Audio | 2007

An album blurring the lines of contemporary improvisation, old-school free jazz and standard composition. Musicians include renowned American bassist Joe Fonda (who has worked with the who's who of improvised music including Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Billy Bang, Han Bennink and Leo Smith), and fine Canadian boys Jesse Zubot (violin) and Torontonian Jean Martin (drums). - "Breathtaking." - Left Hip Magazine

JESSE ZUBOT - Dementia
Drip Audio | 2006

Dementia is Jesse Zubot's first album entirely made up of improvisations. It pivots between solo improvised violin, micro-mandolin orchestras and minimal electronic-influenced sound design.

"...the kind of thing that could permanently alter your neurons if you aren't careful." - Paris Transatlantic Magazine

FOND OF TIGERS - A Thing To Live With
Drip Audio | 2006

The debut release from Vancouver's Fond Of Tigers, A Thing To Live With, is a diverse and challenging listen that defies simple genre classification. In just under 50 minutes, the band (described in print as "compelling", "eclectic", "transcendent", "hypnotic", and "post-everything") moves between sounds which reference prog-rock freakouts, pastoral, back-porch picking, wonky jazz, hardcore math-metal, and ambient drone, without ever coming across as a pastiche act.

"...a perfect ice-breaker for outjazzers and disaffected hipsters." - Down Beat Magazine

LACONNOR - s/t
Drip Audio | 2005

This album includes highly engaging and intricate works that incorporate electro-acoustics, improvisations, folk-inspired chamber-like melodies, samples and humourous dialogue. The result is a fascinating web of intriguing, relentless textural soundscapes, that stay clear of the usual pitfalls of musique actuelle. LaConnor was named one of 2005's top ten experimental/avant-garde albums by Exclaim! magazine.

ZUBOTTA - s/t
Drip Audio | 2005

This is aggressive, yet humorous, electronic music. Zubotta comes from years of twinkling in a home studio. During the making of this recording, inspiration came from artists such as Autechre, Tricky, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, David Holmes, Nine Inch Nails, Howie B and Steve Reich.

"...perfect for dark clubs and suspenseful movie soundtracks." - Amazon.ca

GREAT UNCLES OF THE REVOLUTION - Blow The House Down
Black Hen Music | 2003

Blow The House Down features compositions by Andrew Downing and Kevin Turcotte, as well as a thorough retelling of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic musical tale Peter and the Wolf. This group also includes Steve Dawson on slide guitar and Jesse Zubot on Violin. The group’s music is hard to categorize, falling somewhere between jazz, roots, classical, and gypsy music. This album won a Juno Award in 2004 for best Contemporary Jazz Album.

ZUBOT & DAWSON - Chicken Scratch
True North Records | 2002

This is Z&D's third recording. It incorporates elements of folk music, jazz, pop, and improvisation. It's held together with a cinematic quality. This album was produced by the renowned Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Joey Baron) and includes a guest appearance by the legendary Kelly Joe Phelps. It won a Juno Award in 2003.

"...this is a new kind of folk, exquisitely executed." - Toronto Star

GREAT UNCLES OF THE REVOLUTION - Stand Up!
Black Hen Music | 2001

The first album by this critically acclaimed avant-folk group featuring J Zubot, Steve Dawson and renowned Toronto jazz musicians Andrew Downing and Kevin Turcotte. This album was named one of Canada's top 2001 jazz releases by CBC's After Hours and "...unusually absorbing" by Eugene Chadbourne in his All Music Guide review.

ZUBOT & DAWSON - Tractor Parts: Further Adventures In Strang
Black Hen Music | 2001
Re-Released True North Records | 2003

"...the best thing to happen to acoustic music since David Grisman and Tony Rice put together their groundbreaking quintet 20 years ago. While managing to retain the essential character of traditional bluegrass and blues, Jesse Zubot and Steve Dawson wed those venerable music forms to jazz, pop, trance and other styles. The result is adventurous, intricate music that has one foot on the ground and the other in the ether." - Ron Forbes-Roberts (Monday Magazine/Victoria, BC)

ZUBOT & DAWSON - Strang
Black Hen Music | 1998
Re-Released True North Records | 2003

The first album from Z&D created a stir on the Canadian folk music circuit. Nominated for a Juno Award.
"…Zubot and Dawson are working on their own agenda of skewed roots-based music….well worth seeking out.”
- Froots Magazine, UK

ALPHA YAYA DIALLO - Immé | Jericho Beach Music | 2010 - There is still a lot of the Afrobeat in Diallo's music, but the Vancouver transplant is letting in western influences. These -- the occasional power chord, some brass and strings -- have been incorporated in what, by African music standards, are tight, cohesive arrangements. They're not that obvious but they probably will appeal to North American ears. Diallo's singing is keening and imploring while his guitar playing, which was always attractive, seems cut back to serve a fuller sound. - The Province (JZ co-produced this with Alpha and mixed most of the album as well as plays violin and mandolin on a lot of it.)

THE ELEMENT CHOIR - At Rosedale United | Barnyard Records | 2010 - This recording features Christine Duncan’s extraordinary 50-voice improvising ensemble, The Element Choir, in collaboration with Jesse Zubot, violin; Jim Lewis, trumpet; Jean Martin, percussion; and Eric Robertson, playing the church’s beautiful Cassavent pipe organ at Rosedale United . They possess the musicality, playfulness, and restraint to allow these unique and, in the most sublime moments, overwhelming sound resources (not only instruments and voices, but also the space itself) to be harnessed and channeled into a tangible feeling of wonder. This is very literally a wonderful record. -Scott Thomson (JZ plays violin on this album)

ANDREW DOWNING - Silents | Black Hen Music | 2010 - His most recent musical project is a seven-piece chamber ensemble in which Andrew's cello is joined by Aleksandar Gajic (violin), Joe Phillips (double bass), Kevin Turcotte (trumpet), William Carn (trombone), Peter Lutek (bassoon and clarinet) and David Occhipinti (guitar). The group will be releasing a CD in April of 2010 called Silents which features music written to accompany the silent films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Impossible Voyage. The album also enlists the help of Quinsin Nachoff (clarinet), Jesse Zubot (violin), Tania Gill (celeste, pump organ) and Mark Duggan. "...a postmodern twenty-first century voyageur." - The Toronto Star (JZ plays violin on this album)

OX - Burnout | Weewerk | 2009 - Painting their dust bowl soundscapes with a much more textured brush than ever before, OX jumps down the rabbit hole with their stellar new album, entitled "BURNOUT". Picking up where their acclaimed second full-length, "American Lo Fi" (2006) left off OX combines elements of psychedelic rock with their alt-country & americana tendencies to create an especially warm sound on this seven song treasure. “Parched, weary, aching and rough-edged Americana recalling Neil Young, Wilco and Springsteen... Passionate!” - CMJ Weekly (JZ plays violin on tracks 3 & 6)

THE MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS TRIBUTE PROJECT - Things About Comin' My Way | Black Hen Music | 2009 - The Mississippi Sheiks were a highly under-appreciated country blues group that recorded throughout the 1930's. Featuring all new performances of the fantastic material of the Sheiks, this tribute includes performances led by the likes of John Hammond, Bill Frisell, Madeleine Peyroux, Bruce Cockburn, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Robin Holcomb, The North Mississippi Allstars, Ndidi Onukwulu and many other great artists. "It's hard to imagine any other record this year boasting a more impressive cast of roots music stars than this tribute to legendary bluesmen the Mississippi Sheiks." - Exclaim! (JZ plays violin on tracks 2,5,7 & 8)

VIVIANE HOULE - Treize | Drip Audio | 2009 - Viviane Houle’s debut solo release, Treize, is an intense and highly submersive album that documents the artistry of this vocal improviser through collaborations with members of Vancouver’s rich creative music scene. "throwing dictionaries out of windows, the sound of a trombone digging up a grave, ripping out everybody's larynx with your bare hands...a genius example of this audacious approach to music... one of the year’s best albums." - CokeMachineGlow (JZ produced/mixed album & plays violin on track 7)

AMY MILLAN - Masters Of The Burial | Arts & Crafts | 2009 - Amy Millan (also of Stars and Broken Social Scene fame) returns with Masters of The Burial, a wistful yet warm collection of songs and the follow up to her 2006 solo debut, Honey From The Tombs. "...the album’s overall vibe—lush but never overwrought, mellow without drifting into an ambient sleepwalk—makes Masters of the Burial a safe bet for anyone looking for something to help ease summer’s inexorable slide into the dying days of autumn." - The Georgia Straight (JZ plays violin on track 11)

DARKBLUEWORLD - The Perilous Beauty Of Madness | Drip Audio | 2009 - DarkBlueWorld is singer/poet Elizabeth Fischer's essential vehicle for her collaborations with noted Canadian musicians. "Nina Simone fronting Yeah Yeah Yeahs by way of a Mike Patton project. That gives a sense of Elizabeth Fischer's Brecht/punk. Dense, slithering backing by some of Canada's top creative improvisors make it hit like a freaking art bomb." – The Province (JZ plays violin/strings on tracks 2,8, & 9)

NDIDI O - Move Together | Naïve | 2009 - This is Ndidi Onukwulu's debut European release. It features songs originally released on her 1st two North American albums 'The Contradictor' and 'No I Never', with some re-recorded and remixed. "...this is what a real soulstress sounds like.” - Detroit Metro Times (JZ plays violin/strings on tracks 2,5,7 & 10 and produced tracks 2,4 & 12)

JIM BYRNES - My Walking Stick | Black Hen Music | 2009 - "My Walking Stick” is the latest blood and guts, behind your knees, love, life, death, and after life release from the legendary multi Juno Award winning blues and roots artist Jim Byrnes. "...blood-red, rich album of roots music." - The Globe & Mail (JZ plays violin on tracks 3,5 & 7)

TAGAQ - Auk/Blood | Jericho Beach Music | 2008 - Auk is a considerable expansion upon the work she created with her debut, Sinaa. This new record is perhaps more reflective of what Tagaq brings to her passionate and powerful live performances, specifically the energy and beauty that comes from collaboration. "Violinist Jesse Zubot’s exploratory strings draw circles around her trademark grunts, buzzes, moans and gasps ,lending a backbone to this eerily compelling - collection." - NOW Magazine (JZ appears on tracks 1,2,3,5,8,9,11,12 & 13)

NDIDI ONUKWULU - The Contradictor | Jericho Beach Music | 2008 - The Contradictor, all about focus, training that formidable silk edge on everyone’s private pain, and contradicting the anguish with a full, upbeat, resonance. The Contradictor is personal and universal, built on Ndidi’s songwriting mining the extremes of intimacy, with the bigger sounds and tones she is most interested in uncovering. "Never predictable, the disc shifts sonic and emotional gears without the disjointedness plaguing so many “fusion” - type recordings. - Pop Matters (JZ plays violin on tracks 2,5,7,10 & 11)

VEDA HILLE - This Riot Life | Ape House Records | 2008 - Veda and a large gang of brilliant musician friends play ecstatic songs about life, death, and japanese bathhouses. Piano, two drummers, guitar, bass, strings, woodwinds, horns, many singers, and a little autoharp. Cover art by Geoffrey Farmer. "...unmistakably Hille: uncompromising and left of centre." - NOW Magazine (JZ plays violin on tracks 1-7 & 9-13)

HAWKSLEY WORKMAN - Between The Beautifuls | Universal | 2008 - The 12-track album, produced by Andre Wahl, represents yet another step forward in the evolution of a unique and restless artist. "Between the Beautifuls is the product of an artist who, after nearly drowning, has found some spiritual higher ground." - National Post (JZ appears on track 11)

STARS - In Our Bedroom After The War | Arts & Crafts | 2007 - Their sweet, lovelorn glide is what sets Stars apart from their Canadian peers on this, their fourth album. Emotions here run from gentle melancholy through to ebbing sorrow, but there's still time for euphoria too. "With 'In Our Bedroom...' Stars are rewriting the textbook on romance with effortless glee." - NME.COM (JZ does strings on tracks 4,11 & 12)

JOE SHITHEAD KEITHLEY - Band Of Rebels | Sudden Death Records | 2007 - This is an album by D.O.A. and Canada’s godfather of punk, JOE SHITHEAD KEITHLEY. This 14 song album combines punk-a-billy, ska, punk and roots rock. It’s funny, political, upbeat, and incredibly energetic. The songs talk about smokin’ pot, troublemaking, Star Trek, revolution, and fucking with corporations. (JZ plays violin on track 3)

KEVIN HOUSE - World Of Beauty | Bongo Beat | 2007 - World of Beauty is the second album from reknowned painter/songwriter Kevin House - his canvases and installations have earned accolades from the likes of actor Malcolm McDowell, The Village Voice, and others. Miniature chanson symphonies for late night consumption. Headphone lullabys for apparitions and departure heroes. (JZ does strings on tracks 5,8 & 10)

DARKBLUEWORLD - Dark Blue World | Drip Audio | 2006 - Showcasing unconventional rhythmic textures and an uncompromising approach to music, DarkBlueWorld constructs songs that are sophisticated and direct in their lyrical and musical conception, speaking with truth, courage and conviction. “... a searing alternative to sweetness and light” - Down Beat Magazine (JZ appears on Tracks 3,5,8 & 9)