The Engines
The Engines was a highly influential, Chicago-based free jazz quartet active in the 2000s. It featured an all-star lineup of the city’s creative music scene: Dave Rempis on saxophones, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Nate McBride on bass, and Tim Daisy on drums.
The band distinguished itself through a focus on strong, memorable compositions—largely penned by McBride and Daisy—that served as dynamic springboards for collective improvisation. Their music expertly balanced structure and freedom, weaving intricate themes, bold melodies, and powerful grooves into the energetic language of post-bop and free jazz. With a potent, conversational interplay and a deep sense of swing, The Engines created a body of work that was both intellectually engaging and viscerally exciting, solidifying their status as a pivotal group of their era.
The Engines
The Engines
“The Engines was a collaborative quartet founded in the spring of 2005. The group began as trio, featuring several mainstays of the Chicago improvised music scene: Dave Rempis on saxophones, Nate McBride on bass, and Tim Daisy on drums. In the spring of 2006, trombonist Jeb Bishop was added to the group for one concert. The dynamic of this lineup worked so well that Bishop immediately became a regular member of the band. The band performed regularly across Chicago at many of the venues associated with creative music including the Empty Bottle, Hideout, Elastic, Hungry Brain, and the Velvet Lounge, and they also toured extensively in the US and Europe from 2006-2013.
All of these musicians distinguished themselves as leaders with their own groups, but formed this band to purposely shirk that duty in favor of a more equal musical relationship that better reflects the nature of their improvisations. Each member contributed original compositions to the group, providing a wide range of expression from high energy jousting over driving bass vamps to quieter moments of melodic exploration. With McBride on both acoustic and electric bass, the band explored some of the sonic textures associated with the early AACM, or could also launch into hard-hitting Zeppelin-like grooves, and they used this range of possibilities to its fullest.
In the fall of 2007, their first self-titled cd was released on Okkadisk. The group toured the US and Canada in December of that year, and followed up with a European tour in the fall of 2008. Their second release, Wire and Brass was a live recording made at Chicago’s Hungry Brain in April of 2008, and released by Okkadisk in February of 2010. The band finished a second tour of Europe in support of that release in March 2010. Their third cd, Other Violets was released in March of 2013 on Not Two, and features the legendary saxophonist John Tchicai as a special guest with the group. The band finished a two week, 13-concert tour of North America in April of 2013 in support of that release. After Bishop and McBride both relocated away from Chicago in 2012 and 2013, the band released one more digital-only recording titled Green Knights on Aerophonic Records in late 2015.”
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Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Dave Rempis
Bass – Nate McBride
Drums – Tim Daisy
Trombone – Jeb Bishop
Recorded on 8 & 9 July 2006 in Chicago at Vivian’s Palace by Amos Scattergood
Cover – Dan Grzeca
Design – Louise Molnar
Other Violets
Other Violets
“Unfortunately we lost one of the great innovators in the free jazz world in October 8, 2012. John Tchicai had been a face on the scene for many years, although sadly for many he was often just remembered as the man who played on John Coltrane’s Ascension along with other saxophone greats Marion Brown, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. In reality he made many great records that were quite easily accessible, yet remained firmly committed to the art of music and freedom of expression. One of my favourites is ‘Satisfaction’ with bassist Vitold Rek where Tchicai not only played some sublime saxophone and bass clarinet but also recited some of his poems to great effect. Somehow I guess for me he wasn’t a free-jazzer, just someone who had a large palette of sounds and was open to playing in all musical situations.
So it’s a welcome return to hear The Engines featuring John Tchicai on one of his last recordings. It’s also a chance to hear John Tchicai in the very capable company of these great players, also a real band that’s been in existence since 2008. For all that don’t know ‘The Engines’ it’s a group made up of Dave Rempis (saxes), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Nate McBride (bass) and Tim Daisy (drums). The music, which isn’t much different in style from earlier albums, is post Ornette meets Mingus meets the Vandermark 5 …. which isn’t surprising as they (Daisy, Rempis and Bishop) were part of the Vandermark 5! Their compositions are often mini-suites which develop throughout a piece taking the soloists into new areas where they are required to develop ideas that lead towards the next sections, hence the Mingus connection. Furthermore that means the music is very organic, the themes are small gems of development in melody and rhythm.
It’s great to see that Tchicai isn’t used as a ‘featured’ soloist, but as a true member of the band. He blends perfectly into the working sound of the group, so well you’d imagine that he’d always been part of that ensemble. As on all ‘Engines’ releases it’s a co-operative effort with compositions from all members, and the same applies here with Tchicai adding two tunes to the bands repertoire. On tunes like the opening ‘High and Low/Strafe’ or ‘Cool Copy/Looking’ (tk3) Tchicai plays like a Dewey Redman, blowing bluesy growling lines over swinging free-bop. He duets on flute with Jeb Bishop on the beginning of his own ‘Super Orgasmic Life’ (tk4), but the main point of this group is being ‘a group’, and soloists come and go like trains in a station bringing new ideas and then leaving to make space for others, everything seemingly timed perfectly. The energy of the group is as always top notch, helped by the live recording (*) to inspire creativity, focus and direction for the group and each player. The glorious ‘Gloxinia’ (tk2) drifts over rubato rhythms which dance away with great energy giving the soloists a stormy ride clearly inspires them. Dave Rempis blows up a storm on his saxes on several of the pieces, often reminding me of Thomas Chapin mixed with Ornette. It seems that he takes fewer solos than normal on this recording leaving more space for John Tchicai. Tim Daisy is a marvel as always showing (for me) that he is one of best kept secrets in the history of the drums! Always creative with bassist McBride these two are certainly part of the success of this group, constantly full of energy and new ideas.
A highly recommended album for fans of the Chicago jazz scene, free-bop, Mingus, melody and swing.” -Joe, Free Jazz Blog
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Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Liner Notes – Dave Rempis
Bass – Nate McBride
Drums – Tim Daisy
Tenor Saxophone, Flute – John Tchicai
Trombone – Jeb Bishop
Recorded May 15th, 2011, live at the Hungry Brain, Chicago by Todd Carter
Mixed and Mastered January 2012 by The Engines, Todd Carter
(ARd016) Wooden Legs
(ARd016) Wooden Legs
This live recording from 2011 finds the longstanding working quartet The Engines at an interesting phase of their development as a band. After several years, and three records working on discreet compositions in a more traditional method, the band decided to modify their working model significantly to allow a more flexible and modular approach where they incorporated composition into their improvisation, rather than the reverse. The band learned all of their pre-composed material by ear, and used it flexibly in their sets. A vamp or single melody line from one piece might turn up on its own, only to disappear, or perhaps crop up again later in the concert. Or a piece might be played by half the band in its entirety, while the other half of the band continued to improvise. All these decisions were left up to the will of any individual musician, and the others could decide to follow their lead, or not! This approach was previously documented on the first Aerophonic digital-only release Green Knights, which came out in late 2015, and was recorded in late 2012. It kept them on their toes at all times to construct unique pieces in a fully modular way.
This earlier set from 2011 showcases a similar approach, but with several pieces of previously unreleased material. It was recorded live at The Hideout in Chicago, as part of their longstanding Wednesday night improvised music series curated by Mitch Cocanig from 2006-2014, and takes its name from the bar’s house cocktail. It was also recorded only a month after the band’s last hard copy release Other Violets, featuring special guest John Tchicai on saxophone, which came out on Not Two Records in 2013.
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Jeb Bishop – trombone/electronics
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Nate McBride – bass
Tim Daisy – drums
Recorded June 15th, 2011
live at The Hideout, Chicago, IL
Recorded and mixed by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Mitch Cocanig, Andrea Jablonski, and the entire Hideout crew.
(ARd001) Green Knights
(ARd001) Green Knights
The quartet moves from one form to another with ease, and their improvisational skills are very good; the music never lags during that long duration. -Stefan Wood, Free Jazz Blog
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Green Knights is the only document of a radically new approach taken by a collaborative working band that became an important part of the Chicago improvised music sound from 2005-2013. Although The Engines released three other commercially available recordings during their time as a working band (The Engines – 2007, Wire and Brass – 2010, Other Violets – 2013), none of these documents reflected the shift that began in 2010, when the band stopped performing their compositions as discreet individual units, like a typical jazz band, and began leaving the introduction of pre-composed material up to any individual band member to bring in at will. (Although Other Violets was recorded in 2011, long after this shift began, the band moved somewhat backwards in terms of the openness of their approach in order to accommodate special guest John Tchicai, a project which the band members nonetheless agreed was worthwhile despite the need to temporarily eschew their new aesthetic).
This shift significantly altered the way the band sounded and worked. No longer did they simply set an order, and play their charts down with some improvising sections in the middle. Instead the band would often begin sets as open improvisations, leaving the choice to bring in (or not bring in) material up to any individual member. Other band members were free to respond to such choices as they saw fit, which meant that compositions might also be used in whole or in part – a vamp from one tune might crop up in the middle of an improvisation, but never lead to the melodic material that might otherwise have accompanied it. At other times a melodic kernel might float around as a background to a solo, before another band member introduced a different composition altogether, leading the band down a completely different rabbit hole. And sometimes material might be juxtaposed, with half the band choosing one route, and the other half simultaneously taking the other. Of course, as you’ll hear on this recording on multiple occasions, the band was sometimes perfectly happy to collectively dive into the material head-on as well.
This approach opened incredible new possibilities for the group. No longer was their improvising limited to the allotted sections within a tune. Instead it became possible to spontaneously arrange the entire structure of a set from the ground up, and to drastically rearrange pieces at any moment based on subtle shadings such as a slightly different inflection in a melody, or somewhat altered tempo. This flexibility of course demanded a familiarity with the material that was extreme; each member had to know every line, harmony, vamp, and rhythm through and through to make this open-ended approach possible. In fact, during this period, the band purposely learned all of their composed material strictly by ear, so that there was no possibility of ever falling back on a chart or “stock” arrangement at any time. The writer of a particular tune would simply lead the band slowly through every line and counterline of a piece during rehearsals until each member knew them cold.
This particular recording was made over two nights in December of 2012 live at Chicago’s legendary Green Mill Cocktail Lounge as part of trombonist Jeb Bishop’s 50th birthday celebration, and it does a great job of showing these tactics at work. Although in this context – a packed weekend house at a more traditional “jazz” venue – the band opted to begin each improvisation with one of their tunes, you can hear them employ these arrangement tactics over and over once they make it through the first lap. So although you’ll hear a couple of the same compositions performed from one night to the next, that material is sandwiched in between the other pre-composed material in drastically different ways with no pre-conception or roadmap of what might come next.
These gigs would serve as the penultimate chance to hear the band at work, with Bishop having already decamped to North Carolina in summer of 2012, and bassist McBride soon to head to Boston in May of 2013. These moves effectively ended the ongoing work of regular gigs and rehearsals that the band undertook for 7 full years. With only one more performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival in August of 2013, their era as a regular working ensemble was at its end. We’re especially happy to be able to present the final culmination of those years of work here.
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Jeb Bishop – trombone
Dave Rempis – alto & tenor saxophone
Nate McBride – bass
Tim Daisy – drums
Recorded live in Chicago, IL at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge on December 7th and 8th, 2012
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Dave Jemilo and Jaki Cellini for organizing these concerts in honor of Jeb Bishop’s 50th birthday.