News & Updates — Tom Cora

Here's a birthday nod to the late Tom Cora, improvising cellist of out-rock, free-jazz, underground experimental and avant-garde styles. He modified and prepared his cello, often playing it violently like a guitar and through loud amplification. From Richmond, Virginia, he was originally a drummer before moving to jazz guitar in the DC area. Picking up the cello in college, he studied with Karl Berger and moved to NYC in '79. He quickly joined the rising Downtown avant-garde/improv scene, touring with Eugene Chadbourne and forming Curlew with George Cartwright & Bill Laswell and others. In '82 he formed the improvising duo...