History Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble

The Untempered Ensemble was founded in 1992 by Bill Cole as a trio. The first members of the group were Bill Cole, Warren Smith and Joe Daley. Later in the 1990's bassist William Parker and multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore joined the group. Soon after that the reed player Sam Furnace was asked to join and then at the end of the 1990's Cole's son Atticus became a member of the group, playing hand drums. This group recorded four CDs for Boxholder Records during the early 2000's and gave numerous performances, including at the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Music Hall in New York.

More recently bassist Shayna Dulberger became a member of the ensemble, followed by sax player Ras Moshe. The Untempered Ensemble had appeared in the Vision Festival in New York City seven times when, in 2009, the organizer of the Festival invited the group to appear again, but this time asked whether the group could include a vocalist. So, for the Vision Festival performance that year, Cole's daughter Althea SullyCole was added to the group.

In 2012 the Ensemble will have been in existence for 20 years. During all of these years Bill, Warren, Joe and later Atticus have been members and have formed the foundation of the Ensemble. We hope that the Ensemble will exist for at least 20 more.

---

WARREN SMITH Born in Chicago Illinois, Warren I. Smith entered the professional music world at the early age of fourteen, working in various family bands in the late 1940’s and later in the mid-50’s with Captain Walter H. Dyett’s concert and marching bands. Warren Smith has firm roots grounded in the Chicago south side music scene. Warren is a part of an essential element in the development and definition of Afro-American music.

Warren relocated to New York City in 1957 and completed his Masters of Musicat the Manhattan School of Music in 1958. That same year brought his first jazz gig in New York City with Kenny Burrell at Minton’s Playhouse. W.I.S. played Birdland in 1959 with Gil Evans, and from 1960-1972 worked regularly with Johnny Richards’ Bigband. It was around that time that Warren began extensive work both in the studios and on Broadway.

Already an articulate voice within the jazz community, Warren Smith found himself deep inside the Motown scene throughout the 1960’s and 70’s. Being the unsung percussionist on the scene with Bernard Purdie, Warren played on all the Gladys Knight and the Pips’ 45 hit singles; performed on numerous occasions with Dionne Warwick; did several tours, recording sessions and TV dates with Harry Bellafonte; backed up Nat King Cole on his week summer tour of New England, 1964; played the R n R Shows with Murray the K. in Brooklyn; toured with Barbra Streisand throughout the U.S. in 1965; worked on the ABC New York staff orchestra 1964-67 - including the Jimmy Dean Show and the Less Crane/Nippsy Russell Show; recorded on the only collaborative album done by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell; musical director of Janis Joplin in 1969- playing the Ed Sullivan Show, the San Francisco Ice Palace and her only European tour; recorded, toured and did live TV performances with Aretha Franklin from 1965-1978, including a performance at the 1971 Montreaux Jazz festival, which he also played with Tony Williams Lifetime EGO that same year.

Concurrently with his extensive Motown and studio work, Warren Smith began to teach at Adelphi University in 1969 and later at the State University of New York in Old Westbury from 1971-1996. Never losing sight, Warren has remained a prominent percussionist and drummer within the jazz world. Performing, touring and recording with every progressive from Charles Mingus to Miles Davis, from Muhal Richard Abrams to Sam Rivers, Max Roach, M’Boom, Jabbo Ware, David Murray, Sonny Sharock, Anthony Davis and many other masters of the music.

-----

JOSEPH DALEY is a musician/composer/educator specializing in new/contemporary music, jazz, and improvisation. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and attained a master’s degree in music education. He has received fellowships in music composition from the National Endowment, MacDowell Colony, Music Omi and Geraldine R Dodge Foundation. Daley recently retired as a music educator after completing 30 years of service. Mr. Daley has performed, recorded and toured the world with the following artists: Muhal Richard Abrams, Bill Cole, Far East Side Band, Sam Rivers, Ellery Eskelin, Liberation Music Orchestra, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Taj Mahal, Jayne Cortez, George Gruntz, Gravity, Ebony Brass Quintet, Paradigm Shift, Dave Douglas, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Craig Harris, Spider Monkey Strings and Hazmat Modine.

-----

RAS MOSHE (formally known as Ted Burnett III) was born March 22, 1968 in Brooklyn NY. He studied music in public school and with his father. His grandfather-Theodore Burnett I ("Barnett" for professional reasons) played tenor and alto saxophones in the bands of Earl Bostic, Lucky Millender, Jimmy Mundy, Don Redman and many others after arriving in the U.S. from Jamaica. He also led small group combos with Shadow Wilson for many years. Although Ras is trained in earlier forms of "jazz", his preferred mode of improvisation is in the later or "free" developments of the music. Ras has also been writing and reciting poetry since childhood. He believes in the positive effect the new music will have on social and personal change. He has learned from Billy Bang and William Parker and played with William Hooker, Kali Z. Fasteau, Dafna Naphtali, Dom Minasi, Lou Grassi, Jackson Krall, Matana Roberts, Butch Morris, Kyoko Kitamura, Steve Swell, Matt Lavelle, Marc Edwards, Raphe Malik, Burton Greene, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, Saco Yasuma and other original artists.

-----

SHAYNA DULBERGER is a bassist currently living and working in New York City. Her work is mostly known in the creative and experimental jazzgenre. Since 2007 she has regularly worked with Bill Cole performing in New York City and at Syracuse University. She has also recorded and performed with artists such as: Ras Moshe, as William Parker's bass player on "Double Sunrise Over Neptune" (Aum Fidelity), and with Chris Welcome, Ben Miller and The Young Equestrians. She has performed in many festivals and series such as XFest (Lowell, MA), Rhythm in theKitchen, KMB Jazz Festival, CMJ, "Brooklyn Next" BAM Festival, the Vision Festival, ABC No Rio's C.O.M.A., and Neues Kabarett's events at the Brecht Forum.

Dulberger's first album as a band leader, composer and producer is named "TheKillMeTrio" and was described "...as one of the strongeravant-jazz groups we’ve heard in some time." (Time Out New York) In2007, in a review of TheKillMeTrio album "Jazz and Tzaz" wrote "The 23 year old New Yorker does not comply with the trendy model of women in Jazz". Bruce Lee Gallanter (DMG) wrote in a review for Ras Moshe's album "Transcendence" and said "Acoustic bassist, Shayna Dulberger, is another important new musician to watch, she takes a number of amazing solos on this disc that show her to be a new force to be reckoned with." Shayna has been interviewed on Taran's Free Jazz Hour (Angers, France) and was invited by All About Jazz to participate in their "Listen Up!" Section.

Dulberger was born in 1983, raised in Mahopac, NY. She attended Manhattan School of Music's preparatory division during high school and graduated with a BM in Jazz at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

-----

ATTICUS SHADRACK COLE began studying music at the age of 6. His father, Bill Cole, introduced him to his colleague, Ghanaian Master drummer Abraham Adzinyah, with whom Atticus began studying West African music in the oraltradition. Atticus received private instruction from Mr. Adzinyah and became a member of the Dartmouth College West African drumming ensemble at the age of 7. He worked extensively with the ensemble, studying song, dance and drumming techniques. He continued his studies with drummer Hafiz Shabazz, learning West African, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Atticus received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz composition. Atticus Cole's playing has supported such artists as DeLaSoul, Julius Hemphill, LL Cool J, KRS-One, Maceo Parker, SouLive and WAR.

He has worked with his father for over 20 years, while maintaining his own original Hip-hop group The Formula and playing with The Grace Singers, a gospel group based in Boston, MA.

-----

ALTHEA SULLYCOLE joined her father’s Ensemble as a vocalist in the spring of 2009. SullyCole debuted on the professional stage at an early age, appearing as a solo vocalist in Fred Ho’s opera “Warrior Sisters” at Aaron Davis Hall in New York in May, 1995.

Since then SullyCole has been studying voice, as well as piano, violin and guitar, and has appeared in numerous productions and contexts. SullyCole is also a choreographer, and has presented several works of dance.

SullyCole has studied music and dance internationally in India and Senegal. She is currently pursuing a degree in Ethnomusicology at Barnard College of Columbia University.

Creative Commons By-SA License