(L - R)
Jason Kao Hwang - composer, violin, viola
Andrew Drury - percussion
Ken Filiano - string bass
Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, flugelhorn

Nested in the urban mountains of New York City, EDGE embraces both past and future with musical tales celebrating life and loss. Their instruments, resonant with human and animal overtones, sing through sharp lines vibrating between histories, cultures and genres.  

Jason Kao Hwang's quartet EDGE is nested in the urban mountains of New York City where he created Stories Before Within, personal tales celebrating both life and loss. Over the past three years EDGE has embraced both past and future with musical offerings resonant with human and animal overtones. Their instruments sing through sharp lines vibrating between history, cultures and genres.

Their first CD Edge (2006, Asian Improv Records) reached #14 on the national CMJ radio charts and Stories Before Within (2008, Innova Records), recently released on Innova, hit #9 this past March. Stories was selected as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2008 by both Coda Magazine and All About Jazz.  Their third CD is currently in production, to be released in the fall of 2011.

 EDGE has been presented by the  Vancouver International Jazz Festival (Canada), JazzFest International (Victoria, Canada), Edgefest(Ann Arbor, MI), Reggie Workman’s The Happening 2010,  Hallwalls(Buffalo, NY), the Bop Shop (Rochester, NY)Vision Festival XI (NYC), the National Bohemian Home Jazz Festival (Detroit), An Die Music (Baltimore), the Deep Listening Institute, Brooklyn College, the Stone and many other venues.  

The four manage to meld their individual experiences into a group that can swing hard, evoke the pentatonics and timbres of Asian music traditions or blues edge and push toward freedom. Michael Rosenstein, SIGNAL TO NOISE, 2006

Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violinist) has created works ranging from jazz, classical, “new” and world music. Mr. Hwang leads the quartet EDGE, the octet Burning Bridge (commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works), and also Spontaneous River, an orchestra of string improvisers.  As violinist, he has worked with many artists, including Reggie Workman, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Butch Morris and Henry Threadgill. As composer he has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and others. His chamber opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown (New World Records), was named one of the top ten opera recordings of 2005 by Opera News.

Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) is a performer on cornet and various brass instruments, composer, bandleader, and interdisciplinary collaborator with artists in dance, film, and theater. Bynum presently leads his Trio, Sextet, the eight-piece ensemble SpiderMonkey Strings, and co-leads the 10-piece ensemble Positive Catastrophe with percussionist/composer Abraham Gomez-Delgado. He has also developed a body of solo music for cornet and duo work with dancer/choreographer Rachel Bernsen.  In addition to his own groups, Bynum regularly performs with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Bill Lowe, Joe Morris, Stephen Haynes, Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng and others. He is featured on over fifty CDs, and has performed throughout the world. taylorhobynum.com

 Andrew Drury (drum set) is drummer/composer, mostly in jazz and free improvisation. He has toured homeless shelters in Indiana, was artist-in-residence for six months with the Oneida Nation, jammed with prison inmates in Connecticut, and led workshops in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Bosnia, and across the U.S.  A former student of Ed Blackwell, he can be heard on over 20 CDs and has played with Ricardo Arias, Jim Black, Michel Doneda, Mark Dresser, Peter Evans, Mazen Kerbaj, Eyvind Kang, Briggan Krauss, Myra Melford, Andrea Neumann, Reuben Radding, Wadada Leo Smith, Chris Speed, Steve Swell, TOTEM>, Jack Wright, and others.  andrewdrury.com

Ken Filiano (string bass), has fused the rich traditions of the double bass, bringing out the many voices inherent to the instrument.  His solo bass CD, Subvenire (NineWinds), received unanimous critical praise, and was chosen by Cadence Magazine as one of the top ten CDs of 2003.    Ken tours widely, performing at the DuMaurier International Jazz Festival, Banlieues Bleues Festival (Paris, France); and on many concert stages including Carnegie Hall.  He was principal bassist with the Cascade Festival Orchestra from 1985 - 2002. Ken has also played and/or recorded with artists and orchestras including Bobby Bradford, Nels Cline, Vinnie Golia, Dom Minasi, Alex Cline, Ted Dunbar, and Joseph Jarman. myspace.com/kenfiliano