David "Fuze" Fiuczynski (b. 5 March 1964, Newark, New Jersey) is an American fusion-jazz microtonal guitarist, best known as the founder and leader of Screaming Headless Torsos and a member of several other notable ensembles, such as Hasidic New Wave and The Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra. Fiuczynski is a professor at Berklee College Of Music in Boston (since September 2002), where he opened Planet MicroJam Institute in 2012 to explore microtonality in jazz, ethnic folk and other genres and contexts in contemporary music.
Fiuczynski was born in the United States but lived in Germany with his family between the age of 8 and 19. After returning to America, David settled in Massachusetts, attending Hampshire College and New England Conservatory Of Music. He studied with renowned composer and music theorist George Russell (author of the legendary book "Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization," which led to the creation of modal jazz in the 1950s). David was a member of Russell's The Living Time Orchestra, appearing on 13523493 live CD. He graduated from NEC in 1989 with a Bachelor of Music degree and soon moved to New York City.
In 1994, Fiuczynski's critically-acclaimed collaboration with John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood came out, 163582 CD on Gramavision label, which drew the attention of New York jazz sceners. The following year, David grew to mainstream fame after Screaming Headless Torsos released its debut self-titled album and began touring across the US. In 2000, David launched the Fuzelicious Morsels label, inaugurated with his 1064939 CD album. It featured a collection of "standards" and covers representing a broad range of Fiuczynski's influences and idols, from Pat Metheny and Jimi Hendrix to Frédéric Chopin and Duke Ellington.
In 2006, Fiuczynski returned to New England Conservatory and earned his Master's degree (2008), studying microtonal composition and music of Turkey, India and China. He became Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's Fellow in 2011 and created a compositional project, "Jointly," dedicated to XX-century classical composer Olivier Messiaen and groundbreaking hip-hop producer J Dilla.
One of the defining characteristics of Fiuczynski's unique fusion style is the usage of non-Western tuning systems and microtonal scales in the context of "conventional" jazz and rock-oriented genres. He's been experimenting with fretless and quarter-tone guitars since the early 1990s. David currently performs on customized Campbell American guitars, including his iconic double-neck FuZix, with a fretless 6-string neck on top and a standard 6-string on the bottom.
As a prolific session musician, Fiuczynski has appeared on over 100 albums since 1983. He performed on stage and recorded in the studio with numerous world-renowned drummers, bass players and other artists, such as Jack DeJohnette, co-founder of Parliament-Funkadelic family Bernie Worrell, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Dennis Chambers, JoJo Mayer, Marcus Miller, Billy Hart, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, trumpeter Cuong Vu, jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara and many others.
