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Entries associated with the tag "Chicago Jazz":May 7th - 3:47 p.m.
Chicago has just lost perhaps its greatest living link to its earliest jazz history with the death of reedist Franz Jackson, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Jackson got his start as a musician back in 1929, playing with the great barrelhouse pianist Albert Ammons, and over the decades he played with Jimmie Noone, Roy Eldridge, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Benny Carter, James P. Johnson, and many others too numerous to mention. His career was nearly 80 years long, but he didn't make many records under his own name in that time--his last, I Is What I Is, was released in 2005 by Pinnacle. Still, thanks to his easy flexibility, which allowed him to bridge the gaps between traditional jazz, swing, and bebop, Jackson was a steady presence on the local scene--particularly at venues like Andy's, Dick's Last Resort, Joe's Be-Bop Cafe, the Green Mill, and Pops for Champagne--and he was reportedly in good form when playing at his 95th birthday celebration last November. Jackson was chosen to receive the 2008 Theodore Thomas History Maker Award for Distinction in Performing Arts from the Chicago History Museum prior to his death, so his daughter Michelle Jewell will accept the award during a May 15 ceremony. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, May 24, from 1-3 PM at the Apostolic Lifehouse Church in Dowagiac, Michigan. Today's playlist: Yoko Ono, Approximately Infinite Universe (Rykodisc) April 25th - 5:30 p.m.
Last night I watched the limber free jazz quartet Engines rip through a set of new-ish tunes at Elastic, fine-tuning them for a Sunday-night performance at the Hungry Brain, where those pieces will be recorded for a forthcoming Okka Disk release. The rigorously organized riffs and rhythmic inspire tough improvisation from trombonist Jeb Bishop, reedist Dave Rempis, bassist Nate McBride, and drummer Tim Daisy, but the quartet also generates extra improvisational meat using visual cues, altering the background and rhythmic accents bubbling behind other parts or solos. The group will play two sets on Sunday. According to jazzcorner.com the brilliant jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre, who pioneered a highly influential strain of chamber jazz with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow starting in the early 60s, died yesterday, just two days shy of what would have been his 87th birthday. He was suffering from pneumonia and Parkinson's disease. April 22nd - 7:26 p.m.
Last month when I spoke with George Lewis he expressed hope that someone would soon write the history of Chicago jazz in the 50s. Whoever takes on that task, it got a little bit harder last Wednesday, when pianist John Young died at South Shore Hospital from multiple myeloma. He was 86. Although he released only six albums under his own name during a career that spanned as many decades, he was a crucial presence on the city's bop scene. (Sadly, only his excellent 1959 album, Serenata, on Delmark, is currently in print.) He was a product of Du Sable High School, under the leadership of the legendary Captain Walter Dyett, and he got his first serious professional experience as a member of Andy Kirk's orchestra in the early 40s. By the decade's end he was back in town working with everyone from saxophonists Eddie Chamblee and Von Freeman to blues guitarist T-Bone Walker to singers Lorez Alexandria and Nancy Wilson. In the liner notes to his 1963 trio album, A Touch of Pepper (Argo), Jazz Showcase proprietor Joe Segal observed, "He is constantly sought for all types of live and recording dates; from preferred anonymity on rock 'n' roll gigs to 'elite' pleasing fashion and club dances." Letting Segal's characteristic tweaking of rock slide for now, this touches on a key trait of so many Chicago jazz greats: To make a living they needed to be able to play in any context, and that range inevitably bled back into the work that mattered most to them. Young's own music was thoroughly within the bop tradition, fusing a deep feeling for the blues with a lyrical elegance and a genuinely effervescent touch, but it couldn’t help but be informed and strengthened by knowing how other styles functioned. Here's hoping that his passing will prompt the reissue of some of his records, because he'll certainly live on through their contents. Today's playlist: Davy Graham, Midnight Man (Fledg’ling) February 18th - 10:02 a.m.
Powerhouse Sound, Ken Vandermark’s excellent electric quartet with guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer John Herndon, and bassist Nate McBride, debuts two new pieces in a rare appearance tonight at the Empty Bottle. The free show is presented by Stop Smiling magazine to celebrate its latest issue, which is devoted to jazz. I can’t help but scoff a little at the declaration “Start appreciating America’s greatest art form” on the cover of a Chicago publication, and the issue's design romanticizes a long-gone vision of jazz epitomized by the black-and-white photography of William Claxton and Francis Wolff, both of whom are prominently featured here. An interview with Ornette Coleman, for example, includes four photos shot by Wolff in the late 60s, as if Coleman's work of the last four decades doesn't really count. On the other hand, it’s hard to complain when slick lifestyle mags pay any attention whatsoever to jazz. There’s a good piece on vibist Bobby Hutcherson, a thoughtful discussion between Eternals singer Damon Locks and guitarist Parker, and an excerpt from the forthcoming biography of Peter Brötzmann by John Corbett, who guest-edited the issue. The band plays at 10:30 PM and bassist Josh Abrams--who interviewed drummers Robert Barry and Avreeayl Ra for the issue--and the magazine's marketing director Ben Fasman will both DJ.
February 11th - 9:09 p.m.
Musician, a documentary by local filmmaker Daniel Kraus about reedist Ken Vandermark, will make its national television premiere on Sunday, February 17, at 9 PM CST (and again at midnight) on the cable channel Ovation, which is carried here by the Dish Network and Direct TV. Part of an ongoing series of occupational profiles by Kraus that he calls The Work Series (the first was Sheriff), it's an exceptional piece of storytelling that leaves all the action to Vandermark and his cohorts--no talking heads, no voice overs, no fancy editing. And it torpedoes any notion that there's anything glamorous about being a jazz musician. Facets Multimedia will release the film on DVD on May 27, with about an hour of additional unreleased footage. Today’s playlist: Waverly Seven, Yo! Bobby (Anzic) January 3rd - 6:53 p.m.
Earlier today Monica Kendrick mentioned a CD-release party by Sabertooth this weekend, and I just found out about another release celebration this Sunday night--fellow Delmark artist Ari Brown will play three sets, beginning at 7:30 PM, at the New Checkerboard Lounge at 5201 S. Harper Court. A few months ago Brown, one of the sturdiest and most flexible saxophonists in the city, put out a live CD and DVD cut at the Green Mill--no idea why that venue wasn’t chosen for this occasion--and it ably captures his range, from Coltrane-style soprano workouts to blues-rich Chicago hard bop and modal balladry. The album also paints a warm portrait of Brown’s unfussy skill and charismatic humility: for much of his career he’s worked as a sideman, supporting everyone from Elvin Jones to Kahil El’Zabar (this is only his third work as a leader since the 90s), and I’ve always had the sense that he isn’t interested in the spotlight. He just loves to play the horn.
December 23rd - 11:39 a.m.
There’s usually no deader week on the local concert calendar than this one, but for fans of improvised music there are a couple of Christmas presents: On Wednesday reedist Ken Vandermark and drummer Tim Daisy meet up at the Hideout for an evening of spontaneous music-making that will surely be akin to the fine 2006 Empty Bottle gig captured on August Music (a limited CD-R release). The two work together in several contexts these days—from the Vandermark 5 to the Frame Quartet to Bridge 61—so they have a strong, natural rapport, whether they're shaping high-octane, heavily rhythmic blasts or focusing on slow-moving textural excursions. Then on Friday former scene mainstay/gadfly Weasel Walter will play duets with trombonist Jeb Bishop at Heaven. Back in the 90s they worked together in an early line-up of Weasel's Flying Luttenbachers, the long-running, frequently morphing project that he just recently disbanded. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2003 Weasel has maintained a hectic pace, playing with the Luttenbachers, XBXRX, and Burmese, among other groups, but the biggest shift has been his return to free jazz and improvised music, which will be the context for this gig. He’s just released three new albums on his own ugExplode label, including what may be the final Luttenbachers opus, Incarceration by Abstraction, on which he played everything himself. More germane to this gig is the scorching Firestorm, recorded live in New York and Philadelphia this past February. Some heavy hitters join the fray—including veteran Sun Ra reedist Marshall Allen, bassist Lisle Ellis, drummer Marc Edwards, and saxophonist Marco Eneidi—but ultimately this album is about the massed sound the whole group delivers, a roaring maelstrom of pure energy music. Lichens, a trio date with bassist and frequent collaborator Damon Smith and Italian reedist Gianni Gebbia, is more restrained and, dare I say it, reminiscent of the jazz tradition—swinging rhythms, walking bass lines, and postbop horn licks. It’s nice to get the chance to hear Weasel play in such a spacious, limber context. Today’s playlist: Paul Motian Trio 2000 + 2, Live at the Village Vanguard (Winter & Winter) December 19th - 12:35 p.m.
Tonight at the Hideout the Engines play two sets to announce the release of the their recent eponymous debut for Okka Disk. The quartet features some names familiar to those who keep abreast of the local free jazz scene—trombonist Jeb Bishop, reedist Dave Rempis, bassist Nate McBride, and drummer Tim Daisy. Just about all the press I’ve read on the band elucidates the various connections the musicians all have to Ken Vandermark, and the intense energy of the quartet certainly recalls the knockdown blowouts of the V5, which all but McBride have played in. Yet by playing compositions penned by all four members the Engines spread the attack around. The tautness of the arrangements and the rock-inspired fury—particularly when the bassist goes electric and lays down a thick and nasty grind—may constitute a group sound, but each tune covers different turf. A piece like Daisy’s aptly titled “Careful” uses fragile, practically invisible contours to organize sensitive improvisations that seem to be on the edge of disintegration. More often, however, the front line taps into the deep grooves carved out by the rhythm section, which frequently bumps into the blues without exactly embracing it. Rempis and Bishop unfurl plenty of muscular, searching solos, but my favorite parts are when the two get tangled in each other’s lines: you can hear the years of experience at work in the way they support and challenge each other without getting in each other’s way. This band is certainly worth space in the paper, but I recused myself because I am DJing, in an Iron Chef-style battle with John Corbett, before, between, and after the band’s sets. But even if I wasn’t spinning I would be there anyway. Plus, they're fresh off a two-week US tour, so they ought to be burnin'. Today’s playlist: Christian Wallumrod, The Zoo is Far (ECM) December 4th - 7:01 p.m.
The 10th anniversary festivities for the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet continue this week with performances by a number of killer spin-off projects. On Wednesday at the Hideout the superb reeds trio called Sonore (pictured) reconvenes. Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, and Mats Gustafsson formed this configuration about four years ago and recorded an excellent album called No One Ever Works Alone (Okka Disk, 2004) that challenged the status quo of the all-saxophone group, keeping things fully improvised but generating pieces marked by the kind of compositional logic that arises when musicians share sensibilities and thoroughly understand one another’s art. Both on the record and at a stunning live gig back in 2004 at the Empty Bottle, the trio ran a sort of musical relay race, using spontaneous riffs as launch pads that the other players either embraced or rejected. But rather than the hot-potato back-and-forth, these guys focus on sustained development and intense interaction. Two nights later at the same venue Brötzmann closes out the celebration by playing in two powerful groupings that have both recently been documented on knockout albums. The Fat Is Gone (Smalltown Superjazz) was recorded live last summer at Norway’s Molde Jazz Festival, and the music delivers the kind of raw, explosive energy you’d expect from Brötzmann, Gustafsson, and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, although there are some exceedingly pretty, restrained passages amid the din. Again, the rapport of the musicians is evident in spades—a sort of telepathic intuition you don't normally expect behind sounds this urgent and visceral. Finally, Guts (also on Okka Disk) captures a terrific 2005 gig by Brötzmann, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, bassist Kent Kessler, and drummer Michael Zerang at the Bottle. The longtime cohorts of the rhythm section were seriously locked in during the performance, laying down deep, bluesy, highly elastic grooves or scraping out refracted harmonies streaked with grainy textures, providing excellent foundations for the aggressive yet often lyrically tender horn play on top. Today’s playlist: November 1st - 2:19 p.m.
Tonight the second annual Umbrella Music Festival kicks off with a terrific triple bill at Elastic. Much of the festival is covered in this week’s Reader, but there wasn’t room to cover everything. New York trumpeter Peter Evans—who played here last month with the raucous Mostly Other People Do the Killing—plays solo, a context that finds him sounding more focused and minimal. On his debut last year, More Is More (Psi), he advanced a singular conception of solo trumpet, using extended technique in service to abstractions that nevertheless contained an irrefutable logic. His new quartet album falls somewhere in between the solo stuff and MOPDTK. He uses the raw material of jazz standards—the harmonies and chord progressions—to compose new pieces that are battered with noise and melody, but what comes through everything is his astonishing technique. As an acquaintance of mine noted, Evans sometimes seems like he’s trying to show off everything he can do when he plays with a group—and there's a lot to show off. Somehow I don’t mind that tack, but his solo stuff is wonderfully measured. Tonight’s program is rounded out by the duo of Cor Fuhler and Jim Baker and the superb quartet called Frequency. Another rare treat happens Saturday night at the Hideout, when bassist Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten presents his killer quintet. He started the group a few years ago with Norwegian musicians, including guitarist Anders Hana (MoHa, Ultralyd), before he relocated to Chicago, and last year he revamped the combo with locals Dave Rempis (saxophone), Jeff Parker (guitar), and Frank Rosaly (drums), keeping Norwegian violinist Ola Kvernberg. The original lineup cut a terrific, self-titled album for Jazzland, but the forthcoming second album with the Chicago lineup raises the temperature and the ensemble feel. The Year of the Boar, which is due from Jazzland in February 2008, was recorded live in Oslo following several weeks of touring, so the group was playing the tunes—one remnant from the original lineup and six new Haaker Flaten compositions—at a very high level. The band will play locally for the first time in over a year, with Dave Miller sitting in for Parker, who will be out of the country with Tortoise. October 26th - 11:41 a.m.
Since relaunching his label the Sirens six years ago, Steven B. Dolins has been feverishly redressing some of the injustices that have affected a handful of Chicago’s finest musicians. Thanks to his efforts the discography of folks like Erwin Helfer, Geraldine Gay, and Earma Thompson have expanded significantly. This week he’s been celebrating the release of two new titles with some gigs at Katerina’s. Last night gospel pianist Gay and her brother Donald, who’s a fine if slightly mannered singer, played in honor of their new Soulful Sounds, while tonight Thompson is joined by saxophonists Ari Brown and John Brumbach, bassist Yosef Ben Israel, and drummer William “Bugs” Cochran to officially launch Madam Queen. Tonight’s performance starts at 10 PM; cover is $10. Today’s playlist: Ernan Roch, Con Las Voces Frescas (Discos Mariposa) October 23rd - 7:11 p.m.
Trumpeter Jaimie Branch is only 24, so I think it’s more than reasonable to say she’s still figuring out her music. Yet while I’m fairly confident she’ll produce something important in the future, she’s already got skills—big time. A 2005 graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, she’s an active presence around town, working regularly with Keefe Jackson’s Project Project, the New Fracture Quartet, Flytrap, and Sherpa, as well as her own trio, Princess, Princess, with bassist Toby Summerfield and drummer Frank Rosaly. Princess, Princess played last month in New York at the Festival of New Trumpet Music, an event started by Dave Douglas a few years back and an ideal showcase for Branch’s talent. Too often the trio exhibits inertia—a common enough dilemma in free improvisation—with Rosaly getting hung up on texture, Summerfield seemingly at sea, and no one pushing the music forward. But it’s always hard to miss Branch's sheer potential. She’s got a strong, malleable tone and in this free setting she nevertheless betrays a vast postbop vocabulary; she can also draw on a wide array of the instrument’s more abstract extended techniques. On one live recording I’ve heard she nails the car-engine-turning-over trick that Axel Dörner pioneered. I usually hesitate to proffer recommendations based on potential, but I’d wager good money that Branch will be making serious waves before long. Princess, Princess plays tomorrow night, October 24, at the Hideout, sharing the bill with the intriguing trio of saxophonist Greg Ward, bassist Jason Roebke, and passing-through-town cornetist Rob Mazurek. Today’s playlist: October 16th - 3:54 p.m.
Over the last two decades or so there hasn’t been a Chicago jazz musician as overlooked as drummer Damon Short. Apart from this item I wrote back in 2001, I've been as guilty of it as anyone. Most of us don’t think of drummers as composers and bandleaders, but Short excels at all three disciplines. Yet because he’s older than the Ken Vandermark crew and has always retained a stronger connection to post-bop fundamentals, he’s never really fit neatly within the local aesthetic. It’s a shame for us and for him. Short’s made a handful of studio recordings under his own name as well as some with fellow travelers like Paul Smoker, Paul Scea, and Fred Hess. His tunes are sturdy vehicles for improvisation, but they also possess a lovely melodic elegance and graceful structuring, and his arrangements have always enhanced the formidable talents of bandmates like Chuck Burdelik, Larry Kohut, Ryan Schultz, Mitch Paglia, and Mark Tuttle, among others. The article I linked to above reported on the formation of Short's own CD-R label, Depth Perception, which he started to release a backlog of recordings, and while the operation has been sporadic, earlier this year he issued Retrofit, a wonderful collection of live material cut with the players I just mentioned. The music proves he’s become a master of running a strong band, creating original material that brings out the lyric, if somewhat abstract tendencies, of his collaborators. Over the years Short has maintained ties to certain figures on the LA jazz scene, particularly the reedist Vinny Golia, who in 2002 used his 9 Winds imprint to issue Short’s superb album Go Figure—criminally, the drummer’s last official release. Tomorrow night Short and cohorts Burdelik, Schultz, and bassist Anton Hatwich will serve as the band for LA trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, a wonderful player in the loose orbit of Golia, for a gig at the Velvet Lounge. It’s a good pairing; on his album Queen Dynamo (Origin), Vlatkovich reveals himself as a deeply melodic, thoughtful improviser with a brawny, satisfying tone, a guy who understands a broad range of jazz history without being captive to it. Today’s playlist: Ami Yoshida & Christof Kurzmann, Aso (Erstwhile) July 31st - 1:31 p.m.
Belgian vibraphonist Els Vandeweyer began her musical career on the classical path, focusing on contemporary pieces while studying at a performing arts school in Antwerp, but when she noticed how many pieces simulated the feel of improvised music she yearned to play the real thing. She decided to study jazz at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she's still enrolled, but for the last two years she’s had the best sort of musical lessons, playing in real life situations. She's spent time in Oslo, working sporadically with some of the scene’s most important figures—including Kjetil Moster, Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten, Havard Wiik, and Paal Nilssen-Love—and in Lisbon, hanging out in the record shop Trem Azul, which is owned by the same fellow who runs the increasingly important Clean Feed label. While in Lisbon, Vandeweyer and Brazilian saxophonist Alipio C. Neto cofounded Imi Kollektief, an international quintet featuring French trumpeter Jean-Marc Charmier and the Portuguese rhythm section of bassist João Hasselbring and drummer Rui Gonçalves. The band’s sole recording, Snug as a Gun (Clean Feed, 2006), offers the only extended evidence of Vandeweyer’s work; while the songs are spiky and angular, her harmonically rich, jagged lines recall the golden era of Blue Note Records, when Bobby Hutcherson was a fixture on loads of classic albums. Sadly, Vandeweyer's playing is too low in the mix, but when she solos or her darkly shimmering chords fight their way through, her talent is plain. The raw energy of the quintet and the predilection of Neto to ramp his solos into explosive free jazz terrain fits in nicely with some of the free jazz made here in Chicago, so Vandeweyer ought to feel right at home when she plays three gigs with locals this week. Tomorrow, August 1, she’ll be joined by a terrific band (guitarist Jeff Parker, reedist Dave Rempis, bassist Josh Abrams, and drummer Mike Reed) on a program of her tunes at the Hideout; she says her music has changed greatly since she cut the Imi Kollektief record. Then on Thursday at Elastic and Sunday at the Hungry Brain she’ll improvise with two different line-ups of Chicagoans. Today's playlist: Turf Talk, Brings the Hood (Sick Wid’ It)No Spaghetti Edition, Sketches of a Fusion (Sofa) Ståhls Blå, Schlachtplatte (Moserobie) Hugh Davies, Tapestries (Ants) July 13th - 5:58 p.m.
Since arriving here back in 1997, drummer Nori Tanaka has made an ever-increasing impact on the local jazz scene. A native of Fukuoka, Japan, he moved here to study English at Roosevelt College and planned to relocate to a city on the east coast, but after meeting and playing with important mainstream figures like Bobby Broom, Robert Shy, Ron Dewar, and Dennis Carroll he decided to stay. In the last few years he’s really come into his own, and his playing has grown more flexible and daring. He’s a key member of ensembles like A Cushicle, Lay All Over It, and most recently AAT. But on Tuesday, July 17, he’s playing his last gig here, at Rodan, before returning to Japan, even though he wants to stay. It will be a major loss to the Chicago jazz community. Back in 2003 Tanaka spent more than $3,000 and more than three months gathering letters of support in order to obtain an O-1 visa, commonly referred to as an artist’s visa. He was denied. In its letter of denial and on its Web site, the INS mentions a Grammy Award as suitable proof of artistic merit; the Web site also lists, “key roles in prior major productions; significant recognition in the field by critics, etc.; major roles in productions with distinguished reputation; major commercial success; significant recognition from governmental organizations or other recognized experts, record of high salary in relation to others in the field." Of course, even the greatest jazz musicians rarely bring in a “high salary," let alone young talents who are still developing a distinctive voice. It’s hardly news that folks who determine artistic merit are bureaucrats with little to no knowledge of the arts. In order to stay, Tanaka enrolled at Northern Illinois University, where he earned a master’s degree in “percussion pedagogy” in May of 2006. He then pursued an “optional practical training” program over the last year. Now he’s at the end of the road, and without the resources to reapply for the O-1 again he’s leaving the country. Tanaka hopes to return at some point in the near future; gaining employment through a Japanese firm is a slight possibility for him, but nothing is certain. July 5th - 2:36 p.m.
Veteran Chicago violinist Johnny Frigo died yesterday of complications from a fall in his condo two weeks ago. Although he was trained on the violin, he switched to the bass early in his career, and while he worked under Jimmy Dorsey and Chico Marx his most steady work came from sessions, particularly radio and TV commercials. He made a handful of records as a leader over the years—all but 1957’s I Love Johnny Frigo, He Swings were made after 1988 when he returned to the violin exclusively—and he was still actively performing, although he hadn’t played locally in two years. Here’s a story I wrote in March of 2002, when some of the session albums Frigo had made for choreographer Gus Giordano as records for dance instructors were reissued by the hip California label Ubiquity. In other news, the first Chicago Salsa Festival kicks off tonight with a bang; the great New York trombonist and bandleader Jimmy Bosch, a prime mover behind the “salsa dura” (hard salsa) movement, performs at Excalibur. Also in town tonight is the powerful Spanish sound artist Francisco Lopez; he plays Enemy. July 3rd - 2:32 p.m.
Few jazz musicians boast a resume as impressive as Chicago-born-and-bred trombonist Julian Priester. Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Griffin, Max Roach, Booker Little, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, and Charlie Haden are among the bandleaders he’s worked under since the mid-50s, masterfully tailoring his exceptional skills to the needs of each. Over the decades he’s demonstrated an astonishing flexibility, whether playing straight-ahead charts or taking the music out. He was a key ingredient in defining the sound of Dave Holland’s Quintet, which has maintained the same sonic model for two subsequent decades. In the 70s, when he lived in San Francisco, he delivered his powerful take on post-Miles fusion on a pair of albums for ECM, including the classic Love, Love. But otherwise he's made just a few records as a leader, which goes a long way toward explaining why he isn’t known better. Priester has always been a team player—even when soloing at the highest level—and as far as I can tell he’s never been driven too much by stardom. In the early 80s he moved to Seattle, where he began a long stint on the faculty of the Cornish School of Music, but the most threatening blow to his performance availability came in the late 90s when his health failed. In 2000 he received a successful liver transplant, but he still remains a pretty scant presence on the scene. (His last album, In Deep End Dance (Conduit), was released in 2002.) On Thursday and Friday Priester returns home for a pair of rare appearances at the Velvet Lounge with drummer Jimmy Bennington (who recently moved here from Seattle) and bassist Eric Warren. To the best of my knowledge, it’s Priester's first gig here since 1998, when he played the Chicago Jazz Festival as part of a Sun Ra tribute band. It’s been much longer since he led a group in town. The gigs celebrate a new duo recording by Priester and Bennington called Portraits and Silhouettes (TSP). May 22nd - 5:52 p.m.
Depending on how you look at it, the local jazz and improvised music scene is either annoyingly incestuous or deeply collaborative. I prefer the second option. In Chicago, more often than not, mixing up the combinations of players doesn’t just yield varied ensemble sounds, but reveals different sides of individual musicians. Tomorrow night, May 23, a new trio with bassist Josh Abrams, vibist Jason Adasiewicz, and drummer Nori Tanaka makes its debut at the Hideout (cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm will also do a solo set). Based on the four demo tracks I’ve heard, AAT unleashes a stunningly spare, measured sound strongly at odds with the more frenetic and aggressive approach Chicago is known for.
The nominal foreground star and key melodist is Adasiewicz, a constantly improving talent who’s never sounded so restrained. Over loose, spacious grooves, he clearly revels in the gorgeous vibrato of his instrument. It’s not as wide and warm as the tone of someone like Milt Jackson, but it’s there, in all of its stark glory, both in slowly unfolding melodic phrases or in coolly hydroplaning vamps, as on "Cold in Spring." (That song also features a highly tuneful midpiece solo by Tanaka, one of the most unheralded and flexible percussionists in town.) Elsewhere, when Abrams lays down high velocity walking lines, the light touch of the vibist reminds me of the great Walt Dickerson. On “Trance #2,” Abrams plays the bass-like Moroccan string instrument called the guembri, carving out a hypnotic groove over which Adasiewicz unfurls metallic lines by playing the vibes with the wooded end of his mallets. New groups come and go quickly, but based on what I’ve heard, I hope this one sticks around for a while. November 15th - 4:48 p.m.
Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the second album by Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, The Malcolm X Memorial (A Tribute in Music), had been reissued on CD by a new Hyde Park indie called Katalyst Entertainment. The album, recorded live in 1968 at the Affro-Arts Theater, was released sometime in the early 70s on Cohran's Zulu Record imprint. It’s very rare. In 2001 former Chicagoan Jamie Hodge reissued the group’s excellent, eponymous debut (often called On the Beach, after one of its tracks) on his Aestuarium label, and while the second album doesn’t match the singular brilliance of that debut -- where Cohran leads his group through gorgeously hypnotic jazz-funk originals distinguished by his electric kalimba lines -- it’s still a special document. As the title suggests, the disc is a musical interpretation of the life of Malcolm X. There’s some nice urban blues -- with extended guitar playing by Pete Cosey -- and a portrayal of drug-and-alcohol-fueled excesses in a kind of jazz jump blues called “Detroit Red.” Another piece captures his transformation from morally bankrupt street tough to spiritually-awake visionary. The album features Cohran on trumpet rather than kalimba, and there aren’t many examples of the former Sun Ra Arkestra member playing his horn during this era. There are also some excellent performances by future Earth, Wind & Fire members like Louis Satterfield (bass) and Donald Myrick (baritone sax). Among the other key figures in the band were tuba player Aaron Dodd, drummer Bob Crowder, and percussionist Master Henry Gibson. The reissue comes at a great time -- it's a valuable piece of progressive black culture in Chicago at the end of the 60s, which compliments the mid-50s activity of Sun Ra captured in the exhibition currently at the Hyde Park Art Center . |
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