Mahlon Hoard grew up in Goose Creek and Monck's Corner, South Carolina. His studies at North Texas State University were in western classical and improvising traditions. His playing has taken him to Paris, London, Munich, The Bahamas, and throughout the United States. While residing in New York City, Mahlon performed and recorded regularly with many performers that contribute to the jazz tradition, including Adam Holzman, Tommy Campbell, Wil Calhoun, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Gerry Gemmott, Don Sands, Zach Danziger, Andy McKee, Miles Evans, Henry Hay, Tim LeFevbre, Matt Garrison, James Genus, and Rodney Holmes. Mahlon resides in Pittsboro, N.C., playing professionally in the Triangle area and abroad. He plays locally with Scott Sawyer, Beverly Botsford, Scott Warner, Robbie Link, Glenn Morrisette, Chris Boerner, Dana Chell, Ian Davis, and many others.
Ian Davis started drumming at 15 as an R&B drummer with The Barons, playing gigs on the South Carolina “chittlin’ circuit” with Earl Davis, George McCauley, Craig Washington, Phil Griffin, and "Cool" John Ferguson. He played folk and fusion in the 70’s, alt-pop, improvisational, and big band music in the 80’s, and played with Blue Chair, Mind Sirens, Bicentennial Quarters, Trailer Bride, and Chris Stamey/Kirk Ross in the 90’s. He was host drummer for 6 years at the Carrboro Arts Center monthly jazz jam. He moved to the Bay Area in ’95 and played with Mills College-based large improvising ensemble Micro Collective Orchestra along with Scott Rosenberg, Matt Ingalls, Morgan Guberman, Brian Pearson, Brian Kane, and many others. After returning to North Carolina in ’97, he organized the Micro-East Collective, a structured improvisational orchestra similar in design to Micro. He and composer-performer-producer-engineer Chris Stamey have recorded and produced 3 CDs for Micro-East. Ian also manages Umbrella Records. He currently plays in improvisational duos with Jason Bivins (guitar), Mahlon Hoard (soprano and tenor saxes), Onomata, a pulse-based improvising quartet, Unstable Ensemble, a Bloomington-based improvising ensemble, and The Dave Fox Quartet (Greensboro, NC). Recently, he's been invited to do a few gigs with Eugene Chadbourne. In September 2000, he toured with Andrew Voigt, Morgan Guberman, and Toshi Makihara as part of the music and dance group Corpus Ludens. By virtue of coast-spanning employment, the collaboration with Andrew and Morgan continues. Ian also records improvisational performers during house concerts sponsored by the Triangle’s Alliance for Improvised Music.
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