The Jazz Mandolin Project

The Jazz Mandolin Project was an acoustic jazz fusion group formed in Burlington, Vermont, by Jamie Masefield in 1993. Masefield played banjo with dixieland bands, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, before switching to mandolin. In 1996, the debut album consisted of Gabe Jarrett on drums and Stacey Starkweather on bass. The following year the group broke up, and Masefield kept the name with different musicians: bassist Chris Dahlgren and drummer Jon Fishman from Phish. They recorded the next album, Tour de Flux. Masefield described the band's music as " very contrapuntal stuff, like a three-way conversation."The Project's next album, Xenoblast was on Blue Note Records, though it was less a jazz album and more improvisational jazz rock, featuring the guitarist Trey Anastasio of Phish. In 2003 they released a drum- and bass-influenced album called Jungle Tango, which included Ari Hoenig and Danton Boller. In 2005 Masefield returned to a more acoustic sound with The Deep Forbidden Lake, which features cover versions of songs by Radiohead, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Django Reinhardt.