Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, New York bassist Drew Gress gained growing prominence within the realm of contemporary improvised music. He established the quartet Joint Venture alongside collaborators during the latter part of the 1980s, resulting in three Enja releases between 1987 and 1994. Subsequently, Gress directed his N.Y.-based quartet Jagged Sky, whose initial outing Heyday appeared on Soul Note in 1998. During the same period in the late '90s, Gress engaged in performances and recordings with the improvising trio Paraphrase, featuring Tim Berne and Tom Rainey. On Berne's Screwgun label, this trio issued two CDs in the 1990s: Visitation Rites from 1997 and Please Advise in 1999. Performances by Gress have taken place throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas in their northern, central, and southern regions. Residencies as an artist have included University of Colorado-Boulder and Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory. Grants awarded to him come from Meet the Composer and the NEA. Beyond those ensembles, his additional involvements encompass Erik Friedlander's Chimera, the Fred Hersch Trio, the Don Byron Quartet, and Dave Douglas' string group, whose Soul Note album Convergence came out in 1999.
