Robert Cozzolino (b. 1970) has been a professional performing musician since 1984. Mr. Cozzolino took private lessons intermittently from 1983-97 with a variety of instructors. He has studied drumset, keyboard percussion, dumbek, tabla, and zills. From 1988-89 he attended VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. Aghast at this band-leader petri-dish environment, he withdrew to pursue professional and creative interests. While at VanderCook he studied conducting, violin, clarinet, piano, music theory, trombone ("studied" is stretching things here) and some vague approximation of "sight-singing" which despite the best intentions of all involved shall never occur again in this or any other lifetime.

Born and raised in and around Chicago, Illinois, he has lived in
Madison, Wisconsin since 1997. He was encouraged by quasi-subversive wacky parents and their hippie and hipster friends to strike things with sticks at an early age. At the age of four he was given his first toy drumset. It was removed from arms' length (which then as now is not very much) around age six. There is ample photographic evidence that he grew up around florescent, day-glo, velvet psychedelic posters and eclectic musical selections (i.e. Motown to Holst to Black Sabbath).

In 1982 he was given a red sparkle snare drum by his grandfather, Arthur J. Cozzolino who claimed he used it during military service in World War II (in which he fought with a machine gun for the United States through his family's native Italy and received a purple heart). The tale attached to the drum -- that it dates from World War II -- may be apocryphal. From 1985 to 1988 he was in a trio with his older cousins John and Ken Schultz called Psychedelic Octopus. He apologizes for the name. The most stimulating aspect of these years came from an emphasis on live straight-meter improvisation and studio recording experiments.

From March to August 1989 he performed in a death and speed metal band called Seventh Angel while recording with a variety of other artists and groups. At this time he also began a musical collaboration with intimate high school friend Pat Barnard (1970-1997) in an Edgerton, Wisconsin basement. These sessions consisted of guitar experimentation on highly suspect ultra cheap gear and improvised percussion. Collaborations with Bernard (later of the Wesley Willis Fiasco) lasted until early 1993. From 1989 to 1990 he recorded and performed with Badly Monada, a trio that featured another former Marist High School classmate, Kevin Drumm on guitar (he stood and strummed, sort of, and preferred not to solo). When Badly Monada found Mr. Cozzolino's refusal to play things the same way twice (there were undoubtedly other factors) unsuitable he was asked to leave. In December 1991 another brief collaboration
with Drumm was begun. Drumm later lived with Cozzolino and Richard Holland (1995) and there were occasional collaborations.

From September 1990 to December 1991 Cozzolino was in Sleepyhead (Barnard on guitar and vocals, Kieth Scheurmann on bass) which toured to the following cities in the summer of 1991: New York, New Haven, New Jersey, Boston, Norfolk, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Iowa City, Kalamazoo, and Madison. Sleepyhead recorded modestly despite much material and failed to follow through on its potential. A single was recorded at Chicago Recording Company in July 1991 but remained on tape, badly mixed.

From 1992 to 1994 Scheurmann and Cozzolino performed in a nice, potentially world-dominating Money Clot (the name no fault of our hero). Alcoholic, porn-addicted lead singers do not make stardom easy. In the summer of 1994 Mr. Cozzolino was enlisted in the Thresholes, a punk band that was managed by Holland. Heroin addicted lead-singer bassists do not make stardom easy.

From November/December 1993 to the present his relatively unaddicted, quite reliable sometimes paranoid constant collaborator has been Richard Holland. Holland and Cozzolino co-founded (with Randy Van Ort) The Institute for Sonic Ponderance after inheriting the archives of composer and tone scientist Barbara Santini (1877-1979?). Mr. Cozzolino and Holland have performed and collaborated on so many different projects it is unproductive to list them all here. They can be referenced throughout this site.

Since 1993 Mr. Cozzolino's principle activity has been working as an improvising musician, collaborating in one-night stands, long term duos, trios, large ensembles. In various situations he has performed with Ken Vandermark (but who hasn't), Kevin Drumm, John Seden, Mark Booth, Charles King, Jeb Bishop, Fred Lomberg-Holm and many others. From 1998 to the present he has performed with Anthony Faris in Madison. Currently he is working with Joanne Pow!ers, multi-instrumentalist (predominantly woodwinds).

He really really really likes cake.