Mark Helias

Mark Helias (born October 1, 1950) is an American double bass player and composer born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

He started playing the double bass at the age of 20, and studied with Homer Mensch at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1974, then at Yale School of Music from 1974 to 1976. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School, and SIM (School for Improvised Music).

Helias has performed with a wide variety of musicians, first and foremost with trombonist Ray Anderson, with whom he led the ironic 1980s avant-funk band Slickaphonics, and a trio with Gerry Hemingway on drums, formed in the late 1970s, later named BassDrumBone. Helias has also performed with members of Ornette Coleman's band, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Ed Blackwell, and with musicians affiliated with the AACM, such as Anthony Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams.

Since 1984 Mark Helias has released twelve recordings under his own name and further albums leading the archetypal improvising trio Open Loose since the late 1990s. The group comprises Helias on bass, first Ellery Eskelin, then Tony Malaby on tenor saxophone and Tom Rainey on drums.

Recognition/Awards

 * 2010 - American Composers Orchestra Reading Commission,
 * 2007 - Chamber Music America Grant for New Works,
 * 2006 - Distinguished Alumnus Award Livingston College,
 * 1991 - Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commission,
 * 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000 - Arts International Travel Grant,
 * 1988, 1994 - NYFA Grant in Music Composition,
 * 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995 - NEA Grant in Jazz Performance,
 * 1981 - CAPS Grant in Music Composition,

As leader

 * Music For Big Band (Radio Legs, 2020)
 * Roof Rights (Radio Legs, 2020)
 * Available Light (Radio Legs, 2020)
 * Fictionary (GM Recordings, 1998)
 * Loopin' the Cool (Enja, 1995)
 * Attack the Future (Enja, 1992)
 * Desert Blue (Enja, 1989)
 * The Current Set (Enja, 1987)
 * Split Image (Enja, 1984)

With Open Loose
 * The Third Proposition (Radio Legs, 2020)
 * The Signal Maker (Intakt, 2015)
 * Explicit – Live at the Sunset (Marge, 2011)
 * Strange Unison (Radio Legs, 2008)
 * Atomic Clock (Radio Legs, 2006)
 * Verbs of Will (Radio Legs, 2004)
 * New School (Enja, 2001) Tony Malaby replaces Eskelin
 * Come Ahead Back... (E1/Koch Jazz, 1998) with Ellery Eskelin and Tom Rainey

Collaborations
Duo with Jane Ira Bloom With Sophia Domancich and Andrew Cyrille With Terrence McManus and Gerry Hemingway With Michael Moore, Alex Maguire, and Han Bennink With Mark Dresser With Daniele D'Agaro and U.T. Gandhi With Christy Doran, Bobby Previte, Gary Thomas With Slickaphonics With Ray Anderson and Gerry Hemingway a.k.a. BassDrumBone
 * Some Kind of Tomorrow (Radiolegs Music, 2020)
 * Courtepointe - Live at the Sunside (Marge, 2012)
 * Transcendental Numbers (NoBusiness, 2011)
 * White Widow (Ramboy, 2001)
 * The Marks Brothers (De Werf, 2000)
 * Gentle Ben (Nota, 1999)
 * Corporate Art (JMT, 1991)
 * Live (Teldec, 1988)
 * Check Your Head at the Door (Teldec, 1986)
 * Humatomic Energy (Blue Heron, 1985)
 * Modern Life (Enja, 1984)
 * Wow Bag (Enja, 1982)
 * The Long Road - BassDrumBone with Jason Moran and Joe Lovano (Auricle, 2017)
 * The Other Parade (Clean Feed, 2011)
 * The Line Up (Clean Feed, 2006)
 * March of Dimes (Data, 2002)
 * (Hence the Reason) (Enja, 1997)
 * Wooferlo (Soul Note, 1989) first album as BassDrumBone
 * Cooked to Perfection (Auricle, 1999; Compilation of rec. from 1986, 1987, and 1996)
 * You Be (Minor Music, 1986)
 * Oahspe (Auricle, 1979)

As sideman
With Ralph Alessi and Modular Theatre With Barry Altschul With Ray Anderson With the Ed Blackwell Project With Jane Ira Bloom With Anthony Braxton With Don Cherry With Marilyn Crispell With Franco D'Andrea With Anthony Davis With Benoît Delbecq Unit With Paul Dunmall Sun Quartet With Marty Ehrlich With Ricardo Gallo's Tierra de Nadie With Dennis González NY Quartet With Jerome Harris With Gerry Hemingway With Peter Herborn With David Lopato With Joe Lovano With Michael Moore With Simon Nabatov With Operazone (Bill Laswell-Alan Douglas-Karl Berger-Project) With Jim Pepper With Bobby Previte With Enrico Rava With Dewey Redman With Joe Rosenberg With Roswell Rudd and Heather Masse With Samo Šalamon With Dave Schnitter
 * Open Season (RKM Music, 2008)
 * Irina (Soul Note, 1983)
 * Brahma (Sackville, 1980)
 * Somewhere Else (Moers Music, 1979)
 * Wishbone (Justin Time, 1991)
 * Right Down Your Alley (Soul Note, 1984)
 * What It Is? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 1 (Enja, 1993)
 * What It Be Like? Ed Blackwell Project Vol. 2 (Enja, 1994)
 * Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickenson (Outline, 2017)
 * Early Americans (Outline, 2016)
 * Wingwalker (Outline, 2011)
 * Mental Weather (Outline, 2008)
 * Six Compositions: Quartet (Antilles, 1982)
 * Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY, 2001)
 * Quintet (Moers) 1977 - 05.30 (Braxton Bootleg, 2013)
 * Trillium J (New Braxton House, 2016)
 * Live at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, 1986 (BBC, 2002)
 * Storyteller (ECM, 2003)
 * Sei brani inediti (Red, 1991)
 * No Idea of Time (Red, 1984)
 * My One and Only Love (Red, 1983)
 * Song for the Old World (India Navigation, 1978)
 * Benoît Delbecq and Fred Hersch Double Trio - Fun House (Songlines, 2013)
 * Phonetics (Songlines, 2005)
 * Ancient and Future Airs (Clean Feed, 2009)
 * The Long View (Enja, 2002)
 * Dark Woods Ensemble – Sojourn (Tzadik, 1999)
 * Dark Woods Ensemble – Live Wood (Music & Arts, 1997)
 * Dark Woods Ensemble – Just Before the Dawn (New World, 1995)
 * The Great Fine Line (Clean Feed, 2011)
 * Dance of the Soothsayer's Tongue (Live at Tonic) (Clean Feed, 2007)
 * NY Midnight Suite (Clean Feed, 2004)
 * Algorithms (Minor, 1986)
 * The Whimbler (Clean Feed, 2005)
 * Outerbridge Crossing (Sound Aspects, 1989)
 * Kwambe (Auricle, 1978)
 * Traces of Trane (JMT, 1992)
 * Inside Outside (Enemy, 1991)
 * Rush Hour (Blue Note, 1994)
 * Bering (Ramboy, 1998)
 * Chicoutimi (Ramboy, 1994)
 * Home Game (Ramboy, 1992)
 * The Master and Margarita (Leo, 2001)
 * Tough Customer (Enja, 1993)
 * The Redesign (Knitting Factory, 2000)
 * Comin' and Goin' (Europa, 1983)
 * Music of the Moscow Circus (Gramavision, 1991)
 * Flat Fleet (Philology, 2005)
 * The Struggle Continues (ECM, 1982)
 * Musics (Galaxy, 1978)
 * Soundsigns (Galaxy, 1978)
 * Do What We Must Do (CIMP, 2002)
 * August Love Song (Red House, 2016)
 * Government Cheese (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007; rec. 2004)
 * Two Hours (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006; rec. 2004)
 * Glowing (Muse, 1981)