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Entries associated with the tag "Nate Mcbride":October 16th - 12:56 p.m.
Over the past decade and a half, Ken Vandermark has cultivated a steady crew of collaborators that he's drawn upon for a staggering number of groups. He's often worked with young, new players in town, and to a lesser extent abroad--he was especially good about this in the 90s--but only a handful of them have cemented working relationships with him. Tonight at Elastic Vandermark will play a series of duets with the three bassists who have anchored the overwhelming majority of his bands over the years. Vandermark is unsentimental about his music making, preferring to look forward rather than bask in past accomplishments, but tonight's show can't help but underline the reedist's lengthy history in Chicago. Today's playlist: Lucky Dragons, Widows (Marriage) August 12th - 4:09 p.m.
Last week while taking in the Jazz em Agosto festival in Lisbon, I caught a superb set by the Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet, which has made a quantum leap from the already impressive sound on its debut album, last year's The Middle Picture (Firehouse 12). The group, which will make its Chicago debut in November as part of the Umbrella Music Festival, mixes fluid lyricism with post-Braxtonian complexity (trumpeter Bynum, reedist Matt Bauder, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and violist Jessica Pavone have all studied and played with Anthony Braxton). The material the group played in Lisbon--as well as its sharp execution--proved that it's evolved significantly since the Middle Picture sessions in 2005 and 2006. Bynum, who's based in New York, has a slew of new work planned for the upcoming year, including a sextet album in November. And he recently released Double Trio (Engine), recorded at New York's Festival of New Trumpet Music in 2006 with fellow trumpeter Stephen Haynes, guitarists Halvorson and Allan Jaffe, and drummers Warren Smith and Tomas Fujiwara. The horn men both contribute original tunes, and they interact like two brains running in parallel but plugged into a common power source. Bynum is gearing up for yet another recording this week here in Chicago. It'll be the first album by a quartet that bassist Nate McBride led years ago in Boston, which also includes versatile saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase and drummer Curt Newton (an early collaborator of Ken Vandermark's). The quartet will make its Chicago debut with two sets on Wednesday at the Hideout. Today's playlist: July 2nd - 2:12 p.m.
The superb Boston pianist Pandelis Karayorgis is spending the week in Chicago, renewing old musical acquaintances and making new ones. Tomorrow night he’ll take his Wurlitzer head-to-head with fellow pianist (and ARP synthesizer whiz) Jim Baker at Hotti Biscotti, along with drummer Steve Hunt, bassist and guitarist Brian Sandstrom, and electric bassist Nate McBride. But for me the most exciting gig happens on Thursday at Elastic, when the trio of Karayorgis, McBride, and clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio will reconvene to celebrate the recent release of Chicago Approach (Nuscope), a dazzling album recorded here in the fall of 2005. (Karayorgis also recently released a duo album with Ken Vandermark called Foreground Music on Okka Disk, but they won’t be playing together on this trip.) Karayorgis collaborated regularly with McBride back when he still lived in Boston and appeared on Gregorio’s first album, Approximately (Hat Art, 1996), and Red Cube(d) (Hatology, 1999). He and Gregorio both share a strong affinity for the music of reedist Jimmy Giuffre and pianist Lennie Tristano, and in some ways the instrumental format of Chicago Approach suggests an homage to Giuffre’s great trio with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow. It includes a lovely reading of Giuffre’s “Variation” as well as a spin through “Spring Signs,” a piece by pianist Don Friedman, an associate of Tristano-disciple Lee Konitz. But close listening makes it clear that this trio has its own set of concerns. Nine of the 15 selections were freely improvised, but the spontaneous structures these musicians devise give the music an austere, composed feel. All three men are sharp listeners, reacting in a flash to one another’s gestures and darting melodic lines. On the surface the performances are subdued, but that belies the weight of the performances and the skilled on-the-fly harmonies. Following the trio set at Elastic, Karayorgis and McBride will be joined by saxophonist Keefe Jackson and trombonist Jeb Bishop for a set that will include tunes by Karayorgis and Thelonious Monk.
June 26th - 6:54 p.m.
Four of the city’s finest free-jazz bassists will converge on the Hideout tomorrow night as part of the club’s Immediate Sound series. In conventional settings the bass often gets short-shrift, tracing out chord patterns and providing the form for an ensemble, but these players are all strong improvisers who masterfully braid rhythm with texture and melody. Josh Abrams, Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten, Nate McBride, and Kent Kessler will play in a series of duos, trios, and quartets.
Earlier in the evening the excellent trombonist Jeb Bishop will give a rare solo performance at Corbett vs. Dempsey as part of the closing for the gallery’s current exhibition by Ted Halkin and Katie Kahn. August 3rd - 5:44 p.m.
Last night Ken Vandermark ’s Powerhouse Sound gave their second performance, bringing down the house at the Hideout. Usually the leader’s brawny tenor saxophone muscles its way to the top of the mix, but in the company of electric bassist Nate McBride, drummer John Herndon, and guitarist Jeff Parker it had to fight for its place. The group plays a stunning amalgam of electric music—I heard bits of Funkadelic, the early 70s work of Miles Davis, and spacey dub reggae—but it can’t be reduced to a simple composite of those sources. I’ve heard Parker play in loads of different contexts, where his preternatural mastery of funk and rock is hinted at, but this was the first time I can recall him ever visiting those styles with such purity; the spirit of Eddie Hazel loomed large, but Parker’s gooey, lacerating tone and his unpredictable melodic shapes were all his own. Herndon was a revelation, too. He provided a deep funk, but he consistently varied his rhythms with spontaneous accents and discrete improvised sections that provoked his bandmates without disturbing the music’s surprisingly graceful flow. Too often in such hard-hitting funk projects the bass player finds it necessary to strut his stuff, but McBride was a model of economy--no Jaco noodling here--laying down thick, muscular lines that bypassed the typical slaphappy simplicity of most funk for something more ethereal yet forceful. Instead of seeing how many notes he could cram into each bar, McBride frequently laid out to provide meaningful space. Vandermark, who wrote and arranged the music with both authority and a light touch, pushed as hard as he could, playing nicely angular lines that criss-crossed with the patterns of Parker and McBride, a mix of barwalk honk and free jazz abstraction. For all of the music’s rigor, it was incredibly fun. Here’s hoping that they become a more regular presence. |
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