David Fiuczynski (born March 5, 1964) is an American contemporary

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

guitarist, best known as the leader of the Screaming Headless Torsos and David Fiuczynski's KiF, and as a member of Hasidic New Wave. He has played on more than 95 albums as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

, band leader, or band member. Though born in the United States, his family moved to Germany when he was 8 years old and remained until he was 19. He returned to the US to study at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

and later the prestigious

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on ...

. He received a Bachelor of Music from the latter in 1989. After living in New York City for more than a decade, he now resides in Massachusetts and is a professor at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cou ...

in Boston. Fiuczynski describes himself as "a jazz musician who doesn't want to play just jazz." Many of his albums have thematic material associated with one or more additional genres. For example, Screaming Headless Torsos emphasizes jazz-funk fusion; and Hasidic New Wave blends jazz with

Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...

and

African music Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and oth ...

. His album ''Jazz Punk'' is a collection of standards and covers written by his idols and mentors where each tune was reworked in distinctive musical combinations. In 2005, Fiuczynski was hired by former

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest a ...

drummer

Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the English rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with th ...

for the band Gizmo, which toured in Italy in July 2005. Starting in 2007, he has toured with trumpeter

Cuong Vu Cuong Vu (born 19 September 1969) is a Vietnamese-American jazz trumpeter. In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Vu was a member of the Pat Metheny Group. Biography Born in Saigon on September 19, 1969, Vu immigrated to Seattle with his ...

and with jazz pianist

Hiromi Uehara , known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in h ...

, ano appeared on the latter's albums ''Time Control'' and ''Beyond Standard.'' In 2012 he started Planet MicroJam, an institute exploring the use of microtones in jazz, ethnic folk and other contexts. Fiuczynski is the guitarist on the 2013 album ''Gamak'' by alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Discography

As leader or co-leader

* 1991 ''Trio + Two'' with Cindy Blackman, Santi Debriano (Freelance) * 1994 ''Lunar Crush'' with

John Medeski Anthony John Medeski (born June 28, 1965) is an American jazz keyboard player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano ...

(

Gramavision Gramavision Records is an American record label founded in 1979. Since 1994 it has been a subsidiary of Rykodisc. The label's music is largely jazz, blues and folk oriented but has touched on many other styles and genres. In 1979, Jonathan F.P ...

) * 2000 ''Jazz Punk'' (Fuzelicious Morsels) * 2002 ''Black Cherry Acid Lab'' (Fuzelicious Morsels) * 2003 ''Kif'' with

Rufus Cappadocia Rufus Cappadocia is a Canadian-American cellist best known for his cross-cultural recordings and performances. He has released albums in collaboration with guitarist David Fiuczynski, singer Bethany Yarrow, Stellamara with Sonja Drakulich, multi ...

(Fuzelicious Morsels) * 2005 '' Boston T Party'' with Dennis Chambers, Jeff Berlin, T Lavitz (Mascot) * 2008 ''Kif Express'' (Fuzelicious Morsels) * 2012 ''Planet Microjam'' ( RareNoise) * 2016 ''Flim! Blam!'' (RareNoise) With Hasidic New Wave * 1997 ''Jews and the Abstract Truth'' * 1998 ''Psycho-Semitic'' * 1999 ''Kabalogy'' * 2001 ''From the Belly of Abraham'' With Screaming Headless Torsos * 1995 ''Screaming Headless Torsos'' * 2000 ''Live in NYC'' * 2001 ''Amandala'' * 2001 ''Live!!'' * 2002 ''1995'' * 2005 ''2005'' * 2014 ''Code Red''

As co-leader

With * ''Mikrojazz!'' (2017)

As sideman

With Hiromi * 2003 '' Another Mind'' * 2007 ''

Time Control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game cloc ...

'' * 2008 ''

Beyond Standard ''Beyond Standard'' is an album by Hiromi Uehara’s group, Hiromi’s Sonicbloom. Contrasted with her previous albums that featured mostly original compositions, this one is a collection of Jazz standards played in a fusion style. Reception Chr ...

'' * 2009 ''Live in Concert'' With others * 1989 '' London Concert Vols. 1 & 2'', George Russell * 1989 ''Soldiers of Fortune'', Santi Debriano * 1991 '' Blu Blu Blu'',

Muhal Richard Abrams Muhal Richard Abrams (born Richard Lewis Abrams; September 19, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the Uni ...

* 1992 ''

Duophonic Duophonic sound was a trade name for a type of audio signal processing used by Capitol Records on certain releases and re-releases of mono recordings issued during the 1960s and 1970s. In this process monaural recordings were reprocessed into a ...

'', Charles & Eddie * 1992 '' Serious Hang'',

Jack Walrath Jack Arthur Walrath (born May 5, 1946) is an American post-bop jazz trumpeter and musical arranger known for his work with Ray Charles, Gary Peacock, Charles Mingus, and Glenn Ferris, among others. Biography Walrath was born in Stuart, Florida ...

* 1993 '' Plantation Lullabies'',

Meshell Ndegeocello Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...

* 1993 ''

Amethyst Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz. The name comes from the Koine Greek αμέθυστος ''amethystos'' from α- ''a-'', "not" and μεθύσκω (Ancient Greek) / μεθώ (Modern Greek), "intoxicate", a reference to the belief that ...

'',

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's " Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. B ...

* 1993 ''Raven Roc'',

Ronald Shannon Jackson Ronald Shannon Jackson (January 12, 1940 – October 19, 2013) was an American jazz drummer from Fort Worth, Texas. A pioneer of avant-garde jazz, free funk, and jazz fusion, he appeared on over 50 albums as a bandleader, sideman, arranger, and ...

* 1994 '' Thought 'Ya Knew'',

CeCe Peniston Cecilia Veronica "CeCe" Peniston (; born September 6, 1969) is an American singer and former beauty queen. In the early 1990s, she scored five number one hits on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Her signature song " Finally" r ...

* 1995 ''Chartbusters''!, The Chartbusters * 1996 '' Peace Beyond Passion'', Meshell Ndegeocello * 1996 ''Big Music'', Mike Gibbs * 1996 ''Hip Strut'',

Bop City Bop City (also known as Jimbo's Bop City) was a jazz club operated by John "Jimbo" Edwards in San Francisco from 1949 to 1965. It was situated in the back room of a Victorian house at 1690 Post Street, in the Western Addition district. During ...

* 1997 '' Oceans of Time'',

* 1998 ''Mind over Matter'',

Mark Shim Mark Shim (born November 21, 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a jazz tenor saxophonist. History Shim's family moved from Kingston to Canada when he was eight years old, and then settled in Richmond, Virginia five years later. He started on sax i ...

* 2000 ''Cycles'',

Gene Lake Oliver Gene Lake, Jr. (born January 12, 1966 in St. Louis) is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of saxophonist Oliver Lake. Lake began playing drums when he was five years old, and took lessons with Pheeroan akLaff as a high schooler at ...

* 2001 ''Cherry'',

Josh Roseman Josh Roseman (born 5 June 1967) is an American jazz trombonist. His nickname is "Mr. Bone". He studied in Newton North High School. Roseman was born in Boston, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. Roseman toured Jamaica with The ...

* 2001 ''Conjunction'', Mike Clark * 2001 ''I'll Be Fine'', Janita * 2001 ''Venus in Transit'',

Franz Koglmann Franz Koglmann (born 22 May 1947) is an Austrian jazz composer. He performs on both the trumpet and flugelhorn in a variety of contexts, most often within avant-garde jazz and third stream contexts. An award-winning composer, Koglmann has perf ...

* 2002 ''Scientist at Work'',

Frank London Frank London (born 1958 in New York) is an American klezmer trumpeter who also plays jazz and world music. Early life London was born to a Reform Jewish family and grew up in New York and Connecticut. He started playing the trumpet in fourth g ...

* 2003 ''East Village Sessions'', Gongzilla * 2003 ''President Alien'',

Yerba Buena Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. ''Yerba buena'' translates as "good herb". The specific plant species regarded as ''yerba buena'' varies from region to reg ...

* 2003 ''Yol Bolsin'', Sevara Nazarkhan * 2005 ''Siete Rayo'',