[15][12] According to a review of their collaboration in The New Yorker, “phrases emerge and wrap around each other: Peter Zummo’s gorgeous trombone motif, Russell’s pizzicato cello theme, and a growing drone of loud, dissonant guitars…When the smoke clears, genre is just a memory.”[16] Russell, in turn, played often for Zummo, notably on the Bessie Award–winning composition Lateral Pass, created for a dance by choreographer Trisha Brown, with a stage set by artist Nancy Graves.

"[18] In 2014, Mikhail Barishnikov's Baryshnikov Arts Center, in New York City, awarded Zummo and bass player Ernie Brooks a residency for the creation of new work.

[4] Zummo appears as himself in Jonathan Demme's Accumulation with Talking Plus Water Motor, a film featuring Trisha Brown,[20] and in Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, a documentary by Matt Wolf.

[42] After Zummo's early classical-music education in his hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and composition at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.

[4][1] After Wesleyan, Zummo moved to New York City, where he continued trombone studies with Carmine Caruso[46] and Roswell Rudd and sought out the influences of James Fulkerson and Stuart Dempster.

[4][35] In New York City, Zummo developed extended techniques for the trombone and other instruments and created many works, including numerous pieces with his wife, then-choreographer and dancer Stephanie Woodard.