Madison Rast

North Carolina native Madison Rast graduated from the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC and received his MM in 1998 from Virginia Commonwealth University, as a recipient of the Carpenter Fellowship Scholarship. He moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1999 to pursue a career in jazz. Since that time Madison has become one of the areas most in demand bassists.

 

Upon moving to Philadelphia, Madison quickly found a home at the legendary Ortleibs Jazz Haus where he performed regularly. He became a member of Bootsie Barnes Sextet, which had a monthly residency at the club. As his reputation grew, his solid and steady bass lines supported many notable musicians including Mickey Roker, Orrin Evans, Sean Jones, Larry McKenna and many others.

 

In 2012, Madison released a debut recording of his own original songs and arrangements. In 2014, he was part of a recording project with pianist Garry Dial and saxophonist Dick Oatts, in which the poetry of Walt Whitman is set to original music. Since 2018, Madison has been among the collective of jazz musicians known as the Captain Black Big Band under the direction of Orrin Evans, whose 2019 release Presence, 2020’s The Intangible Between and 2024’s Walk a Mile in My Shoe were all Grammy nominated. Recently, Madison appeared on The Philadelphia Eagles A Philly Special Christmas Party, along with Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks.