Howard fishman

Howard Fishman, composer, guitarist and bandleader

Fishman began his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and in the subways of New York before making his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room in 1999. He has since headlined in major venues both in the States and abroad, including The Steppenwolf Theatre, The Blue Note, NJPAC, The Pasadena Playhouse, Joe's Pub, The Bottom Line, and Le Petit Journal in Paris. He made his Lincoln Center debut in February, 2007, when he was presented as part of this season's American Songbook series. Fishman has also been a frequent NPR guest, making feature-length appearances on FRESH AIR with Terry Gross, WORLD CAFE with David Dye, The Leonard Lopate Show and Soundcheck with John Schaefer, among others.

The All-Music Guide has called him "an important force in creative music," and The New York Times has written that his work "transcends time and idiom."

His sound has moved through early jazz, folk, blues, free jazz, classical, rock, pop, funk, country and, most recently, New Orleans brass band and gospel music. Fishman has released six CDs, the latest of which is an interpretation of the legendary “Basement Tapes” that were originally recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band. He currently maintains a full-time touring schedule and is based in New York City.

Fishman's extensive background as an actor, director and scholar specializing in the work of Eugene O'Neill has kept him involved with the theater. He studied with the late Jose Quintero and has worked with The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf Theater and was a member of the 1998 Lincoln Center Directors Lab, where he returned in 2006 to hold a seminar on the Provincetown Players. "We Are Destroyed," Fishman's original folk-jazz oratorio developed with the support of The Public Theater in New York City is currently slated for production in spring 2008.

A native of West Hartford, Connecticut, Fishman currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

DISCOGRAPHY

* THE HOWARD FISHMAN QUARTET (1999)
* I LIKE YOU A LOT (2001)
* DO WHAT I WANT (2002)
* LOOK AT ALL THIS! (2005)
* THE HOWARD FISHMAN QUARTET VOL. II (1999/2005)
* PERFORMS BOB DYLAN & THE BAND'S 'BASEMENT TAPES' LIVE AT JOE'S PUB (2007)