Mads Tolling & John R. Burr:
Ramblin’
Mads Tolling is a two-time Grammy Award-Winning Violinist and the 2016 Winner of DownBeat Critics Rising Star Poll. As a former nine-year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke's band, Mads has spent most of his professional life touring internationally. Mads has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in DownBeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Paquito Rivera, and he is now a part of Bob Weir’s Wolf Bros Band. In 2015 Mads was commissioned to write a violin concerto by the late great conductor Michael Morgan, which he performed with Oakland Symphony Orchestra at the Paramount Theatre.
John R. Burr is one of the most in-demand pianists around the Bay Area. He has toured extensively with Maria Muldaur and The Alison Brown Quartet. Mads and John met back in 2015, and just last year the two released their first album together, Ramblin’ on Blue Coast Records. The CD, which was recorded a day before the COVID lockdowns 2020, features creative arrangements of songs from all corners of the music world, including Toto, Lennon/McCartney, Victor Young and John McLaughlin.