Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist whose fiercely intuitive improvisations have carved out a unique space in the contemporary avant-garde. His expansive discography includes deeply felt solo works like Stateless (2020) and We Will Be Wherever the Fires Are Lit (2024), and his forthcoming electric album Low Clouds Hang, This Land Is on Fire (2026) on Drag City. Dorji is one half of Manas, the dynamic duo with drummer Thom Nguyen, and a founding member of the free jazz trio KUZU, alongside saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Tyler Damon. His collaborators span a wide spectrum: from Mette Rasmussen, Susie Ibarra, Efrim Manuel Menuck, Alex Zhang Hungtai, John Dieterich, Audrey Chen and Joe McPhee to more recent partnerships with Tony Buck, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor,bassist John Edwards, and drummer Steve Noble. Across his solo and group projects, Dorji’s playing, rooted in alternate tunings, prepared guitar, and spontaneous gesture, articulates an aesthetic of resistance, deep listening, and collective transformation.
of 75 Dollar Bill.
Jamal R. Moore is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, educator, and native of Baltimore, Maryland. Moore’s research-driven practice incorporates percussion, woodwinds, and electronic synthesis, exploring African American/Diasporic traditions and global indigenous aesthetics.
Moore leads several groups—Akebulan Arkestra, Napata Strings, Black Elements Quartet, Organix Trio, and Mojuba Duo—and has received numerous chamber ensemble commissions. Sawud Rayay (2022), which translates to “Black Sun”, is a four-movement symphony composed for Mind on Fire, an arts organization presenting contemporary music in Baltimore. The work explores the Egyptian cosmology of the sun and its impact on human creation and existence, employing a graphic notation language Moore developed called “Tasu-Re” to guide collective improvisation through composed movements.
Moore has worked and recorded with luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Nicole Mitchell, Archie Shepp, David Ornette Cherry, Tomeka Reid, Dr. Bill Cole, DJ Lou Gorbea, George Duke, Sheila E., David Murray, J.D. Parran, Ras Moshe, Hprizm, Tatsuya Nakatani, Hamid Drake, and Yahya Abdul Majid (Sun Ra Arkestra). He is an affiliate of The Pan African Peoples Arkestra, founded by Horace Tapscott; Black Praxis of David Boykin; and is a member of Konjur Collective.
Moore holds an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts and a B.M. from Berklee College of Music. He was a member of the Eubie Blake Jazz Orchestra (2000) under the direction of Christopher Calloway Brooks, and graduated from the Frederick Douglass High School, whose notable alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, and Ethel Ennis.
He is a Professor at Coppin State University and full-time music educator in the Baltimore City Public School district.