Chicago's Avant-Garde Musicians

[mjzee]

Chicago's Avant-Garde Musicians

By MARTIN JOHNSON

Most jazz fans readily acknowledge that Chicago ranks just behind New Orleans and New York in importance to jazz history. During the '20s and '30s, Louis Armstrong made his first dozen seminal recordings in Chicago, and the postwar years saw a wide range of great musicians -- from bluesy saxophonists like Johnny Griffin to analytical pianists like Lenny Tristano -- emerge from this Midwestern epicenter of jazz.

But what's less well known is that Chicago has continued to nurture generations of innovative musicians. The latest wave bridge the gap between avant-garde jazz and avant-garde or art rock to create a music of unusual texture and power.

While the sound is surprising -- it's dense and infectious -- the development is entirely logical. Since its beginnings in the early '60s, the Chicago school of the jazz avant-garde has sought to embrace and unify the diverse threads of musical history rather than refute the most recent trends. The key early figures in the development of the Chicago avant-garde -- pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, saxophonist Fred Anderson, reedman Anthony Braxton and the members of the group the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- tended toward a quieter, more contemplative sound than the raucous dissonance often heard in New York avant-garde jazz circles, and they started The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

That organization established a school on Chicago's South Side and presented concerts and workshops that have cultivated dozens of young musicians. Saxophonist Matana Roberts and trumpeter Rob Mazurek, the leader of the Exploding Star Orchestra, are the brightest lights of the new Chicago wave, and each has a new recording -- Ms. Roberts's "The Chicago Project" (Central Control) and Mr. Mazurek's "Bill Dixon With the Exploding Star Orchestra" (Thrill Jockey).

Ms. Roberts, who was born and raised in Chicago before moving to New York five years ago, says that the scene in her native city was crucial to the development of her sound. "My mentors made it clear that it was important to understand the history of the music but present it in a way that echoed my own personal stamp."

She credits those elders -- particularly Mr. Anderson, who leads a weekly Sunday-evening jam session at his jazz club, The Velvet Lounge, and veteran saxophonist Von Freeman, who leads a popular gig on Tuesdays at his New Apartment Lounge -- with helping her find her voice on the sax. But she says that some of the younger players -- including Mr. Mazurek, guitarist Jeff Parker, flautist Nicole Mitchell and drummer Chad Taylor -- were key to her composing.

"I had no interest in composing," she said via email. "I was going to focus my musical commentary on the work of my heroes and pay homage, but [that crowd] stayed on me all the time to write my own compositions."

Ms. Roberts has made numerous performances as a sidewoman and a leader, but her style really began to mature with the collective trio Sticks and Stones, which featured Mr. Taylor and bassist Jeff Abrams. On "Shed Grace" (Thrill Jockey), released in 2004, Ms. Roberts's sound is vibrant and confident, full of bluesy, gruff tones and tender, wistful murmurs as the group moves through an eclectic repertoire.

"The Chicago Project," a quartet recording that features Ms. Roberts, Messrs. Abrams and Parker, and drummer Frank Rosaly -- along with a guest appearance by Mr. Anderson -- exhibits Ms. Roberts's continued growth. Her sound is often built around short, staccato figures that create rhythmic tension with Messrs. Parker and Rosaly. Mr. Abrams holds the quartet's music together with a steady solid beat. Three tracks feature Ms. Roberts's duets with Mr. Anderson; they are dedicated to the Charlie Parker records that he had her study as a youth.

Ms. Roberts brought the Chicago Project, which is the name of both the quartet and the recording, to Jazz Gallery in lower Manhattan in late February for a rousing performance. She's a commanding figure onstage with her cascades of curly and dreadlocked hair crowning a gold lamé jacket, and her playing is expansive and appealing. The alto saxophonist closed the first set with a 20-minute version of her composition "Thrills" that had the typically serene New York jazz crowd shouting in joy.

This Sunday evening at 8, Ms. Roberts will perform in a more intimate setting, in a duet with guitarist Liberty Ellman at Jimmy's, 41 E. 7th St. For more information, call 212-982-3006.

For years Mr. Mazurek, 42, a cornetist, has been known for some of the best small-group recordings in jazz with his Chicago Underground series. He recorded in duo, trio and quartet settings, and the discs are an outgrowth of his Sunday-afternoon jam sessions at the Green Mill on Chicago's North Side.

Mr. Mazurek considers his new band, Exploding Star Orchestra ("the name is a metaphor for constancy and regeneration," he explained), an extension of that project. It involves several alumni of his Sunday-afternoon run, including Mr. Parker, John Herndon and John McEntire, all three members of the Chicago-based art rock group Tortoise. Groups in the Chicago avant-garde rock movement, which also include Gastr Del Sol and The Sea and Cake, have brought a parallel reserve and austerity to their somewhat cerebral music.

Mr. Mazurek's cornet sound initially owed much to the razor-sharp rhythmic precision of hard bop trumpeter Kenny Dorham, but in the late '90s, it began to grow and take on elements of avant-garde jazz pioneers Don Cherry and Bill Dixon. His compositions also began to integrate some of the hypnotic beats of Balinese gamelan music.

Last winter, Exploding Star Orchestra released its superb debut recording, "We Are All From Somewhere Else" (Thrill Jockey), and it featured Mr. Mazurek's stellar compositions and a near-all-star cast of players from Chicago's jazz and rock communities. The band's latest, "Bill Dixon With the Exploding Star Orchestra," affords Mr. Mazurek a chance to collaborate with one of his key influences.

"Bill Dixon's sound penetrates yet hovers over you like fantastically colored clouds," said Mr. Mazurek of his idol. They met two years ago at the Guelph Jazz Festival in Ontario and hit it off. They collaborated on two pieces for the Exploding Star Orchestra and presented both last summer at the Chicago Jazz Festival.

'My ear was immediately drawn to his approach to the instrument," said Mr. Dixon of his collaborator, adding that he was impressed with Mr. Mazurek's ability to personalize a wide range of musical styles in his playing. The performances on the disc are full of surprise, whimsy and impressive detail. Mr. Dixon's lyrical and diffuse tone challenged the orchestral members to find appropriate complements in their solos, and they do creating a work full of intense orchestral color and unusual textures.

Mr. Mazurek, like many other Chicago musicians, has moved and now lives in Paris after a stint in São Paulo, Brazil. But for musicians who have developed in Chicago, the city is never far from them. Ms. Roberts credits the strong family vibe within the musicians' community there.

"I feel a certain familial love from a lot of the folks I played with there; they check up on me all the time. It helps me stay grounded."

[papsrus]

Thanks for posting that.

[clifford_thornton]

Ditto.

Matana Roberts now lives in NYC, right?

[Alexander Hawkins]

You can probably still hear her from Chicago.

[in a most positive way!]

[AllenLowe]

Chicago? isn't that near the Bronx?

[papsrus]

Curious there was no mention in the article of KV, especially given the premise that the scene is a murky mixture of avant rock and jazz. The writer is hip of Roberts, so it's gotta be an intentional omission, I'd think. Whatever you think of his music, he's no small force on the Chicago scene.

EDIT: Glancing through the article again, the whole thing's kind of pegged on Roberts, which is great, but in that light not so surprising there's no mention of KV.

Edited March 12, 2008 by papsrus

[jimi089]

Curious that the article focuses on two people who no longer live in Chicago. It's a fine article about Roberts and Mazurek, who certainly deserve the praise, but the title of the article implies a much broader scope than the content. I was expecting at least some focus on Nicole Mitchell.

Also, I think many Chicago jazz fans would disagree with his first sentence, though I suppose it depends on what you define as "importance"....

[Uncle Skid]

Nice article, thanks for posting.

Curious that there's no mention of Keefe Jackson. There appears to be a lot of cross-pollination going on -- for instance, Frank Rosaly plays on both of Jackson's leader dates.

[papsrus]

I think we all agree it's a 'curious' article at least.

Sort of a review of Roberts tied into a quick overview of the Chicago scene.

[clifford_thornton]

Also, there's the impression that both musicians were/are part of the AACM, which is not the case for Mazurek and I don't think is true (?) for Matana Roberts.

[sonnyhill]

Ms. Roberts is a member of the AACM.

I happened to be at the Jazz Gallery on the night referenced in the article. The performance was a memorable one. Her new album The Chicago Project is well worth checking out also.

[clifford_thornton]

Shows you what I know!

Saw Sticks & Stones once years ago and was very impressed.

[papsrus]

Ms. Roberts is a member of the AACM.

I happened to be at the Jazz Gallery on the night referenced in the article. The performance was a memorable one. Her new album The Chicago Project is well worth checking out also.

Shows you what I know!

Saw Sticks & Stones once years ago and was very impressed.

I got turned on to Roberts recently and picked up her two Sticks and Stones albums. Both great. Probably favor "Shed Grace" just a little more. Super nice version of 'Ishfahan' on that one. "The Chicago Project" is also outstanding, IMO ... especially the three 'Birdhouse' numbers with Anderson. The whole album is good though. She has kind of an understated phrasing, yet so fresh and -- as she says -- respectful of the roots of the music. I can't get enough, personally. ... Would love to know more about the Chicago scene. Jeff Chan, in particular. Still need to look into his music.

Edited March 13, 2008 by papsrus

[Larry Kart]

I'm up to my neck in the mid-30s-and-below Chicago scene (a picture I didn't mean to draw there) -- admire and know a lot of the players and have posted about the scene here and there on the board. Would love to write more and probably will have to some day, somewhere, but feel constrainted by my indifference to Vandermark, who certainly played a big role in this scene coalescing at all, in terms of getting things working in the first place and spreading that work around with a generous hand. Musically, though, there are so many fine young players here and a real scene feeling -- places to play, people pairing up with the right people for them to play with and getting better and better.

[JSngry]

If I was still of the age and inclination to think that I had something to say that needed a "bigger platform", there's only one place in America to which I would migrate, and that is Chicago. The support system - and talent pool - there seems to be wide, deep, forwards and backwards, and most importantly, organic in its relation to the music that is being made. I know of no other city in America about which that can be said to that degree. And if I had it to do over again, I would have moved the family there about 20 years ago or so.

OTOH, the "fact" that Chicago is about the only place in America about which all that can be said is...telling.

[jazzypaul]

I can't be certain, but I think that's a shot.

[Larry Kart]

now that is surprising! (moreso than Wayne, which i knew & is worth pushing for/against.) personally, edc feels Chicago is vastly overrated, tho' partisans are quite enthused... or perhaps that should read BECASUE partisans are too enthused. beware a place where folks don't bitch as loud as they exclaim because there ain't no goddamn utopias so you wonder wtf they're NOT aware, or not saying. note too, Von aside, how many of the heavies felt the NEED (or $$$ ability, i know) to stay. white boys with "chops," yeah yeah-- there are A LOT of 'em (although Vandermark ain't one) there are plenty of minuses about the Chicago shuck & not as many pluses as portrayed. (negative: they tolerate both Peter Margasak AND Jim DeRogatis, some of thee most loathesome suburbs-- & most loathsome asswipes claiming to be from "Chicago"-- in a nation full of 'em.) personally, i'd rock Mpls/St Paul first, tho' you do lose black folks along the way & are further from Peoria, where every single person born or residing there before, say, 1993 has more soul than every Van-duh-Mock record combined.

oh the partisans will cry foul but ask-- i dunno-- Clifford Thornton: rich (or rich enough) jackoffs from "greater" (sic) Chicago have done more to ruin the midwest than the good folks have contributed in the last, say, twenty years.

LK is a bonus but one man does not a lifetime supply of coconuts make.

EDC -- We're talking players here, right, not people who write about the music? So let me say, Josh Berman, Keefe Jackson, Anton Hatwich, Toby Summerfield, Matt Schneider, Jeff Parker, Josh Abrams, Frank Rosaly, Tim Daisy, Dave Rempis, Jaimie Branch, Jason Roebke, Jason Ajemian, Mike Reed, Greg Ward, Tim Haldeman, Jeb Bishop, Nick Broste, Aram Shelton (now in Oakland), Nori Tanaka (now back in Japan), Jason Adasiewicz, Marc Riordan, David Boykin, John Herndon, James Falzone, Nate McBride, Tim Mulveena, Dylan Ryan, etc. -- the list easily could be twice as long. And, to repeat, as talented and as individual as these people are, they function as a scene as I outlined in a prior post; while everyone can play, there's not a "chops"-oriented player among them. The goal, met time and again, is to make some good music collectively. Haven't seen anything like this with my own eyes since the first wave of the AACM.

[Larry Kart]

Also, extending the net a bit in terms of age, in some cases: Jim Baker, Mars Williams, Brian Sandstrom, Steve Hunt, Jeff Kimmel, Damon Short, Chuck Burdelik, Geoff Bradfield, Paul Hartsaw, Ryan Schultz, Ted Sirota, Rich Corpolongo, Paul Giallorenzo, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Zerang, Patrick Newbery, Kevin Davis.

[jimi089]

Not to mention Fred Anderson, who certainly belongs in the Von category of legends who have stayed and nurtured the locals scene, even when there was bigger $$ to be made elsewhere. Hamid Drake is still ostensibly a Chicago resident although he spends so much time on the road he rarely appears in town. Ari Brown and Willie Pickens are two musicians not to be sneezed at as well.

Other names not mentioned by LK (I'm sure due to the sheer number of them, not by any conscience omission): Nicole Mitchell, Corey Wilkes, David Young, Isaiah Spencer, Kevin Nabors, Junius Paul, Justin Dillard, and Aarong Getsug - the latter half of which represent the young up-and-coming batch in the soon to be AACM members category, to give you some folks who are not in the white boys with chops crowd. The only place you might have heard them is in Ernest Dawkins' big band who have one small official release.

EDC, I don't claim that Chicago is a utopia by any means - like any city, the local scene only does so much to actually support these musicians in terms of coming out to shows (I've been in audiences of between 2 and 5 people at the Velvet Lounge on more than one occasion, Fred Anderson's sacred venue), and there is still, in 2008, some very geographical segregation that goes on with the scene, although that continues to change as well. I think what LK is pointing towards, and I wholeheartedly agree, is a sense that there is a real scene here that produces interesting combinations of players, and that those players continue to evolve and improve as a result of collaboration and real experimentation.

Edited March 13, 2008 by The Danimal

[Larry Kart]

Not to mention Fred Anderson, who certainly belongs in the Von category of legends who have stayed and nurtured the locals scene, even when there was bigger $$ to be made elsewhere. Hamid Drake is still ostensibly a Chicago resident although he spends so much time on the road he rarely appears in town. Ari Brown and Willie Pickens are two musicians not to be sneezed at as well.

Other names not mentioned by LK (I'm sure due to the sheer number of them, not by any conscience omission): Nicole Mitchell, Corey Wilkes, David Young, Isaiah Spencer, Kevin Nabors, Junius Paul, Justin Dillard, and Aarong Getsug - the latter half of which represent the young up-and-coming batch in the soon to be AACM members category, to give you some folks who are not in the white boys with chops crowd. The only place you might have heard them is in Ernest Dawkins' big band who have one small official release.

EDC, I don't claim that Chicago is a utopia by any means - like any city, the local scene only does so much to actually support these musicians in terms of coming out to shows (I've been in audiences of between 2 and 5 people at the Velvet Lounge on more than one occasion, Fred Anderson's sacred venue), and there is still, in 2008, some very geographical segregation that goes on with the scene, although that continues to change as well. I think what LK is pointing towards, and I wholeheartedly agree, is a sense that there is a real scene here that produces interesting combinations of players, and that those players continue to evolve and improve as a result of collaboration and real experimentation.

What is this "white boys with chops crowd" thing? There is IMO no such crowd in Chicago;or at least none of the musicians I've mentioned could be characterized in that way. In fact, as I've tried to emphasize, one hallmark of this scene is an unwillingess to flaunt whatever chops one has, unless and until that's what the musical situation requires. And on this scene, few such situations arise; that's just not what people are interested in doing. The analogy isn't perfect, but was Morton Feldman a "white boy with chops"? Drop this nonsense, please -- the "boys" part, especially.

I didn't mention Von, Fred Anderson, Ari Brown, Willie Pickens et al. because as fine or as great (Von and Lee Konitz might well be the two greatest living jazz musicians), they've been around for years -- are except for Brown, as old, older, or much much older than I am (age 65). Willie's pianist daughter Bethany Pickens is a fine player.

[JSngry]

All I'm saying is that there is a support system in place there that works. You don't get that everywhere, and to the extent that "jazz" is still alive as anything other than a music of "projects" and/or "entertainment" (neither of which is necessarily bad, just not particularly...whatever), it's gonna happen where there is a community support system, no matter how flawed, hyped, or otherwise less than Utopian it is. I don't know that there's anywhere else in America right now that is offering what Chicago is in terms of that type community.

I did, however, preface that relocation spiel w/some pretty big "if"s, none of which are now current, nor have been anytime recently.

[jimi089]

What is this "white boys with chops crowd" thing? There is IMO no such crowd in Chicago;or at least none of the musicians I've mentioned could be characterized in that way. In fact, as I've tried to emphasize, one hallmark of this scene is an unwillingess to flaunt whatever chops one has, unless and until that's what the musical situation requires. And on this scene, few such situations arise; that's just not what people are interested in doing. The analogy isn't perfect, but was Morton Feldman a "white boy with chops"? Drop this nonsense, please -- the "boys" part, especially.

I didn't mention Von, Fred Anderson, Ari Brown, Willie Pickens et al. because as fine or as great (Von and Lee Konitz might well be the two greatest living jazz musicians), they've been around for years -- are except for Brown, as old, older, or much much older than I am (age 65). Willie's pianist daughter Bethany Pickens is a fine player.

White boys with chops was Clementine's term, not mine, and I agree that the chops aspect of it is irrelevant (and the "boys", for that matter, especially with emerging players like Jaimie Branch who you mentioned, who is fantastic).

In any case, what I value about Chicago is that there is still a sense of place here, and it shows in the music.

I forgot to mention in my previous posts that Chicago's also home to the best jazz vocalist you've never heard, Dee Alexander. Hope that last part changes though, because she deserves wider exposure.

Edited March 13, 2008 by The Danimal

[jimi089]

Having spent 9 months of purgatory in Atlanta, and I can guarantee you that nothing about that city can hold a candle to Chicago, unless you're into that whole crunk thing....

Edited March 13, 2008 by The Danimal

[7/4]

forget 'bout Trenton.

.

[Larry Kart]

EDC -- You will admit that, to some extent, music is about what musicians play. If so, have you actually heard anything by any of the people I've mentioned, excluding things they may have done with KVM, who pretty much weighs down all that he touches. I'm not saying you haven't, but you've given no sign, O Great Pontificator, that you have, and if you haven't, you don't know anything about this "scene," except that you don't like Peter Margasak. Also, what does David Grubbs have to do with any of this?

P.S. I said on that Scott Hamilton thread that I've never been interviewed about my "views" on jazz. When my book came out, I was interviewed by Margasak for the Chicago Reader. I forget about that because at the time I was recovering from the worst case of the respiratory flu I've ever had and was borderline incoherent.