The Exploding Star Orchestra was formed when Rob Mazurek, a Chicago Cultural Center and Jazz Institute cornetist, approached Mazurek to put together an avant-garde ensemble of jazz musicians for a Chicago concert. Mazurek assembled an orchestra made up of Chicago musicians who improvise (including some members from Tortoise), and rehearsed the piece. The result was an interlocking musical suite called “We Are All from Somewhere Else”. The celestial tale of stars, stingrays and electric eels combined with birds, phoenixes and rockets was told by Mazurek. It was recorded at John McEntire’s Soma Studio in Chicago by John McEntire and released on Thrill Jockey Records as an album in 2007. The Exploding Star Orchestra featured Mazurek (cornet), Nicole Mitchell(flute), Jim Baker(piano), Corey Wilkes, Jeff Parker (guitar), Matt Bauder [bass clarinet] and Josh Berman (“cornet”), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Josh Berman (“cornet”), Jason Adasiewicz” (vibraphone), John McEntire (“marimba and tubular bells”), Matt Lux (electric basse), Jason Ajemian) (acoustic basses, Mike Reed (drums, percussion and saw), John Herndon (drums, percussion and saw) and John Herndon (drums, s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, drums,,,,,,,,,,,,,, percussion and acous,, acous, acous, acous,, acous,, acous,, acous, acous, e, e, e, e, e, e,,,,,,,,,,, and saw,,,,,,,,,,,, percussion and saw,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and,,,,,,,, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,, and, and, and e, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and a and saw, and, and, and, and and acous and, and, and acous and, and acous and acous and acous and acous and acous and a a Thrill Jockey released Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra in 2008, a collaboration between the group and Dixon. It was one of Dixon’s last recordings. (Dixon, who was 84 years old, died in June 2010. This album saw McEntire and Wilkes leave the group, and Damon Locks joined the Eternals as a vocalist. Delmark’s 2010 release of Stars Have Shapes saw the lineup change again. Baker, Berman and Ajemian had all left, and now The Exploding Star Orchestra included Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Greg Ward, Alto Saxophone, Carrie Biolo, Vibration, Vibration, and Jeff Kowalkowski (piano), in addition to the mainstays Mazurek and Mitchell, Bauder and Bishop, Adasiewicz and Lux. Allmusic
