News & Updates — The Ex

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...

If you've heard Ethiopian music, the chances are that you've heard the bold tenor saxophone vibrato of Gétatchèw Mèkurya. Ever-present on the recordings of the '60s and '70s, much of which was found on the amazing Ethiopiques series, his career found a larger international audience in his later days with his work with the Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex, Boston-based creative fusion ensemble Either/Orchestra, the group of Fendika, Indian singer Susheela Raman and others, and his music was sampled by K'Naan and Damian Marley. The native of Yifat, Ethiopia began his studies on the traditional instruments the krar and masenqo...