Aerophonic Records
(ARd024) Embers and Ash
(ARd024) Embers and Ash
This grouping of Chicago regulars represents a cross-section of the city’s thriving jazz and improvised music scene. Left-of-center saxophonist Dave Rempis, known for his extensive work as a free improviser, unites here with two other established musicians more often associated with the jazz camp in town: trumpeter Russ Johnson, and drummer Jeremy Cunningham. All three are established leaders on their own, and bring an incredibly open-minded approach to bridging the spectrum between knowing how to truly swing, and knowing how to take it just as far out. The group also adds Jakob Heinemann to the mix, a younger bassist and composer who took the Chicago scene by storm while living here for several years during and after the pandemic. The band worked regularly during that tenure, refining their chemistry into a thoughtful, deliberate, and unique quartet sound. Embers and Ash documents their last Chicago performance before Heinemann relocated to California to pursue a graduate degree at CalArts in the summer of 2024. Much more introspective than some of the more blusterous bands that Rempis fronts, this quartet navigates breathy dynamic motion, space, and silence in a singular way.
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Dave Rempis – soprano/alto/tenor saxophone
Russ Johnson – trumpet
Jakob Heinemann – bass
Jeremy Cunningham – drums
Recorded by Dave Zuchowski at The Hungry Brain in Chicago, IL on January 18th, 2024
Mixed and Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Special thanks to Mike Reed, Nolan Chin, Nicole Muto-Graves, and Shannon Marks
(ARd023) Aula
(ARd023) Aula
Aula is the first document of the ongoing musical relationship between Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis and his Belgian percussion counterpart Nico Chkifi on drums and percussion. These two simpatico musicians first met in a group curated by longstanding Belgian concert organizers Koen Vandenhoudt and Christel Kumpen. In April of 2023 both musicians took part in a version of the Visitations concert series in Antwerp, curated and produced by Vandenhoudt and Kumpen’s organization Sound In Motion and their affiliated record label Dropa Disc. That version of Visitations featured a transatlantic sextet including these two alongside Larry Ochs (saxophones) and Darren Johnston (trumpet) from the US, and Marta Warelis (piano) and Hugo Antunes (bass) from Netherlands and Belgium.
Based on the personal and musical strenghts of that collaboration, Rempis and Chkifi decided to delve further into their work in the fall of 2023 when Rempis returned to Europe. The two did a five-concert tour of Germany and Belgium, including this date recorded at the legendary L’An Vert in Liège. Long a home of creative music, that intimate club and dedicated audience gave them the perfect place to relax into the extended exploration of the duo format documented here. With a shared understanding of the meditative and spiritual aspects of their practice in improvised music, these two undertake a patient exploration that builds from long tones and delicate brushwork into volcanic overtures across the arc of a set-length improvisation. Both musicians allow their focus to dictate patience in the trajectories they unfurl, taking their time to alight on peaks that rest on the astounding structures they’ve built beneath.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Nico Chkifi – drums/percussion
Recorded at L’An Vert in Liege, Belgium October 28th, 2023 by Koen Vandenhoudt with assistance from Diego Faes.
Mixed and mastered by Koen Vandenhoudt
Special thanks to Diego Faes, Christel Kumpen, Sound In Motion, and Dropa House.
(ARd022) Near Mint Minus
(ARd022) Near Mint Minus
This cross-generational lineup of Chicago improvisers unites in a quartet that spews fire across everything in its path. Saxophonist Dave Rempis and bassist Kent Kessler have a deep history dating back to their shared tenure in the Vandermark Five from 1998-2010. When they first started working together Kessler was a revered journeyman of the scene, with his longstanding work in Hal Russell’s NRG Ensemble, DKV Trio, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, as well as in groups with Fred Anderson, Mars Williams, Michael Zerang, and many others. As a young upstart, Rempis was lucky to find the guidance and wisdom of someone of that stature. Kessler’s astute insights into what makes music function generally – whether pop, country, contemporary classical, or free improvisation – were an eye opening gift to a young musician. And their late night conversations at the Empty Bottle, Hideout, 3030, Velvet Lounge, and all the other regular haunts of that era very much helped Rempis form his own understanding of the music.
Twenty years down the road, newer waves of improvisers continue to hit the Chicago scene, and fresh energy and ideas continue to pour in. But Gerrit Hatcher and Bill Harris are two musicians whose work has proven to have legs since they first showed up in the mid-teens. Both have formed countless groups with their peers, tour regularly, run their own record labels, and help to organize concerts – all of the community sustaining work necessary to both keep an art scene alive. Both also fit into the high energy aesthetic that Rempis and Kessler have championed for so long. So when Hatcher proposed this quartet grouping way back in 2019, the answer was an enthusiastic yes from everyone involved.
With the intervening years of the pandemic, this debut album is coming out a bit slower than anticipated. But it’s well worth the wait. Those years have allowed the band to work regularly and solidify a coherent group aesthetic that allows the fire to burn, but one in which they also take the time to pulse in the glow of the embers they leave behind.
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Gerrit Hatcher – tenor saxophone
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/baritone saxophone
Kent Kessler – bass
Bill Harris – drums and percussion
Recorded April 13th, 2023 live in Chicago, IL
Recorded and mixed by Bill Harris
(ARd020) The Long Haul
(ARd020) The Long Haul
This live recording from 2011 by the longstanding working band The Rempis Percussion Quartet documents a period of work in between two previous releases – 2010’s Montreal Parade, and 2013’s Phalanx – the first release ever put out on Aerophonic Records! Here we find a band live onstage, and ready to roll for what had increasingly become a rare “hometown” performance after Flaten moved away from Chicago a few years earlier. Situated at the legendary Hideout, a warm Chicago venue that served as a home base every Wednesday night from 2006-2014 for the improvised music scene locally, nationally, and internationally, the band was comfortable, fired up, and ready to go for the occasion. We’re very happy to present this previously undocumented era in the band’s development for the first time.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Tim Daisy – drums
Frank Rosaly – drums
Recorded April 13th, 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.
(ARd019) Harmattan
(ARd019) Harmattan
This one-off quintet grouping was featured as part of a month-long Tuesday night residency organized by saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Jeremy Cunningham at The Whistler in Chicago – a venue that’s become home to a broad array of musicians in the Chicago jazz scene. Each week in February 2019, the two curated a different quintet lineup featuring two horns, bass, and two drummers. Aside from the musicians featured on this recording, made during the second week of the residency, other musicians involved included Avreeayl Ra, Mars Williams, Katie Ernst, Quin Kirchner, Ayana Woods, and Tyler Damon.
The set featured here was one of the highlights of that extended run – a long-form improvisation that unfolded with patience, thought, and beauty from start to finish. These five musicians from different corners of the Chicago jazz scene come together in a thoughtful give and take that belies any factionalism in the music. Although some of them are known primarily for work with more jazz-oriented bands, and some of them come from more of a “free improvisation” background, the music speaks plainly for itself as MUSIC. Five individuals listening, reacting, and respecting one another to compose something larger than any of their individual egos or ideologies. This recording is the Chicago scene in a nutshell – a supportive and friendly community of artists working together.
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Russ Johnson – trumpet
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Joshua Abrams – bass
Isaiah Spencer – drums
Jeremy Cunningham – drums
Recorded February 12th, 2019
live at The Whistler, Chicago, IL
Recorded and mixed by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Billy Helmkamp and the entire Whistler crew
(ARd017) Exposure
(ARd017) Exposure
This live recording was made at Elastic Arts in Chicago as part of the yearly Exposure Series, an event that brings underknown and underrepresented artists to Chicago to introduce them to audiences while also giving them the opportunity to work intensively with their Chicago-based counterparts over several days and in several different performance contexts. For the 2017 incarnation, renowned German saxophonist Silke Eberhard was the special guest, and performed in a trio with Jim Baker and Fred Lonberg-Holm, an octet with Katherine Young, Josh Berman, Jason Stein, Macie Stewart, Paul Giallorenzo, Jason Roebke, and Phil Sudderberg, and in this free-blowing quartet with Rempis, Kessler, and Reed. This set was a particular highlight of the event, with the longstanding connections between the three Chicagoans providing the perfect springboard for Eberhard to bounce off. As a front line, she and Rempis proved to be completely simpatico – knowing how to lay back, how to tease interweaving lines from one another, and how to dive in on a full-on burn when needed. And Kessler and Reed as always prove to be the perfect accompanists. Both are seasoned musicians who approach free-improvised contexts with keen intelligence, giving particular attention to form and structure, while always exercising shrewd judgement in terms of how to drive any given piece forward. They know when to give their bandmates a slight push, or take a breath and let the resulting space speak for itself. This was a first-meeting encounter that provides a great insight into improvised music as a global language, whose many various dialects are often quite compatible.
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Silke Eberhard – alto saxophone
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Kent Kessler – bass
Mike Reed – drums
Recorded April 13th, 2017
live at Elastic Arts, Chicago, IL
as part of the 2017 Exposure Series
Recorded and mixed by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Elastic Arts and The Goethe Institut
(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.
(ARd015) Coast to Coast
(ARd015) Coast to Coast
This solo recording was assembled from two concerts that Rempis did on an extensive solo tour of the US, which consisted of 31 concerts in 27 different cities in the spring of 2017. Lattice, the solo record that he released later that year here on Aerophonic, utilized material from the first half of that trip, recorded live in Asheville, Raleigh, Richmond, and Buffalo. On this recording, we’ve paired up previously unreleased solo material from live sets in Washington DC and Los Angeles.
On those concerts, as he did throughout his trip, Rempis worked with local musicians in both cities including the working trio Heart of the Ghost in DC (Jarrett Gilgore – alto saxophone, Luke Stewart – bass, and Ian McColm – drums) and in a free improvising trio with Jeff Parker – guitar and Ted Byrnes – percussion in LA, then adding the Ghanaian gyil master SK Kakraba to the band for a second set doing Kakraba’s tunes. Although those sets aren’t included here, they no doubt had an impact on the solo music presented on those two evenings! We send a very special thanks to all of those musicians, and the venues and organizers for creating such unique and inspiring environments.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Tracks 1 & 2 recorded live at Collective Arts Incubator
Los Angeles, CA | May 26th, 2017
Track 3 & 4 recorded live at Rhizome DC
Washington DC | April 28th, 2017
Recorded, mixed and produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Luke Stewart, Jarrett Gilgore, Ian McColm, Rhizome DC, Andrew Choate, Jeff Parker, SK Kakraba, Ted Byrnes, and Dave Zuchowski
(ARd014) You Deserve To Dance
(ARd014) You Deserve To Dance
The Outskirts was a short-lived trio that worked from roughly 2007-2009, when bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten was still a resident of Chicago. The three already formed the backbone of Flaten’s Quintet, which did quite a bit of work from 2005 onwards, and had all played together regularly over the years in countless contexts.
This recording was the band’s last performance; an April 2009 date on the longstanding Sunday night Transmission Series at the Hungry Brain. Although they intended to do a full hard copy release of it, the original multi-track files were lost in a hard drive calamity that wiped out several important recording sessions, and made it impossible to mix the files to a desired balance between the instruments. Additionally, Flaten joined Rempis’ working band The Rempis Percussion Quartet in the late spring of that year, joining them for a European tour. As that band was much better established, and Flaten had by then relocated away from Chicago, it limited their performance options, and made the quartet the focus of their activities together. Sadly, The Outskirts dissolved into the practical realities of geography and time.
So we’re very pleased to be able to present this rare historical document here for the first time! Although the drums could use a bit of a boost (sorry Frankie….) it’s still a gorgeous document of a trio of kindred souls, who creatively embrace their love of the jazz horn trio as a vehicle for deep rhythmic exploration. Part Sonny Rollins and part Frank Lowe, Rempis’ burly tenor rides alongside Flaten’s muscular lines, while Rosaly’s endlessly dynamic approach provides a consistent bed of momentum. Both sets from the concert are presented here in full from the original stereo rough mix provided to the band soon after the concert.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Frank Rosaly -drums
Recorded live at The Hungry Brain, Chicago
April 5th, 2009
Recorded by Amos Scattergood
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to The Hungry Brain crew
(ARd013) Live at WNUR
(ARd013) Live at WNUR
This live recording from Northwestern University’s radio station WNUR just outside of Chicago documents what may be the first performance by this collaborative trio. Wheelhouse was a fixture on the Chicago scene from 2005-2013, working regularly across town, and the band featured three singular voices in the improvised music landscape of the city at that time – saxophonist Dave Rempis, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, and bassist Nate McBride. At that time McBride had only recently relocated to Chicago from Boston, where he quickly hooked up with Rempis as a regular collaborator in this band and many others. The two had met in the late 90’s through reedist Ken Vandermark, and all three had a Boston connection with both Rempis and Vandermark having grown up there. As soon as McBride landed, this group was a formation that Rempis knew needed to happen. These three can only be described as simpatico across the board – both great friends and musical collaborators, with a shared perspective on music and life.
At the time of this recording, the band had only just begun, and was working on compositions by each band member. They’d later take the lessons they learned with that approach, and turn it into the sort of extremely focused improvising featured on their one official release to date – 2013’s Boss Of The Plains, also released right here on Aerophonic. But this record serves as an incredible document of a working band in its nascent stages – in fact this may be their very first performance outside of a rehearsal room! This new document is perhaps even more poignant since both Adasiewicz and McBride have stepped back from their performance schedules to varying degree in recent years to focus on family, day jobs, and other important aspects of life outside music.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Jason Adasiewicz – vibes
Nate McBride – bass
Recorded live at WNUR-FM 89. 3
Evanston, IL / Northwestern Univsersity
April 13th, 2005
Recorded and mixed by Steve ??? for live broadcast
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to WNUR, Mike Corsa, and Eric Ricks
(ARd012) Live at The Velvet Lounge
(ARd012) Live at The Velvet Lounge
This recording documents a formative group and period of these three noted musicians’ early careers in Chicago. Formed in 1998, Triage was a working band that played regularly in Chicago, particularly subbing for the Vandermark Five on their long stretch of weekly Tuesday night gigs at the Empty Bottle from 1998-2005. In 2001, original bassist Gordon Lewis left the band and was replaced by Jason Ajemian, who had recently relocated to the city from Virginia. At that time the band embarked on a very active period of recording and touring – three musicians in their early/mid 20’s ready to take things by storm. The band put out four studio recordings including a self-titled cdr in 1998, Premium Plastics in 2001 (Solitaire Records), Twenty Minute Cliff in 2003 (Okkadisk), and American Mythology in 2004 (Okkadisk). Their final release was the limited edition cd Stagger (Utech Records) from a live concert in Syracuse, New York which came out in 2005. They also toured extensively in the US, and did one tour of Europe in the fall of 2004.
This record documents one of the last active periods for the trio before Ajemian left for New York in summer 2005. It comes from the storied Velvet Lounge, another regular outlet for the band to work on its compositional ideas and improvisational approach during their working tenure. Owner Fred Anderson, perhaps the most influential Chicago avant-garde jazz musician of the latter 20th Century, graciously opened up his club to these young musicians, and extended his generosity and warmth of spirit to give them a platform to develop their work. The debt they owe to Fred for this kindness is indescribable. As Steve Lacy wrote on a show poster that hung on the wall of The Velvet Lounge for many years after he played there in 1999 – “This Place Is A Temple.” These three musicians approached it as such. The dedication that Anderson put into running his club was an inspiration, and beyond the joy of playing in that warm room, a gig at the Velvet was a moment for some serious work to be done.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Jason Ajemian – bass
Tim Daisy – drums
Recorded live at the original Velvet Lounge
2128 1/2 S. Indiana Avenue, Chicago, IL
January 28th, 2005
Recorded and mixed by Mark Ramsey
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Fred Anderson, Andy Pierce, Donna Joy Wolfe, Uli Reist, and the rest of the Velvet Lounge crew.
(ARd011) Miniscules
(ARd011) Miniscules
This album is a trail left after an exploratory tour across France that took place between January 29th and February 17th, 2018, as part of The Bridge, a transatlantic network for creative music. This quintet grouping was actually assembled in 2012, and after six years of waiting their turn, finally had the chance to meet for the first time. And what a grouping!
Chicago reedists Jackson and Rempis pair up with the indomitable force of Christine Wodrascka on piano, sitting at the center of the storm, while percussionists Orins and Laserre add 60% color and 40% drive to the proceedings. Wodrascka’s ability to fuel the ensemble with an unparalleled energy leaves the others free to ride on top, add accents and shape here and there, or just find their place in the waves like fish in the sea. This quintet truly represents one of the most succesful groupings of the now 7-year history of The Bridge as an international collaboration.
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Keefe Jackson – sopranino/tenor saxophone
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Christine Wodrascka – piano
Peter Orins – percussion
Didier Lasserre – percussion
Recorded on February 11th, 2018 at La Malterie in Lille, France
Recorded and mixed by Peter Orins
Mastered by Alex Inglizian at ESS Chicago
Artwork by Gina Litherland
Produced by Nader Beizaei, Alexandre Pierpont, and Johan Saint
Special thanks to Nader Beizaei, Alexandre Pierpont, and Johan Saint, Muzzix, and the many venues, musicians, and partners who make up the ongoing transatlantic collaboration The Bridge.
(ARd010) Millenniums
(ARd010) Millenniums
This momentous live recording was made at the world-renowned Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park Chicago, during the 41st annual Chicago Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 1st, 2019. It was a beautiful afternoon as the quartet opened the festival mainstage that day, and as percussionist Avreeayl Ra pointed out later, it was the first time in the history of the festival that a free-improvising band had been presented on that stage. Even with all of the other challenging music presented over the years – Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra, Globe Unity Orchestra, Ornette Coleman, etc., no band had ever gotten up there without a script of some sort. This was truly a watershed moment in the history of this festival, this music, and its relationship to a city that has fostered its’ development over many decades.
As the concert began, members of the festival programming committee stood in the wings, arms crossed, fretting over whether their gamble would pay off. To their surprise, this fiery ensemble was welcomed with warmth and enthusiasm by the crowd of roughly 8,000, marking a significant moment in the history of the music in this city, and perhaps nationally. One could sense the sigh of relief emerging from the organizers as the proverbial tomatoes remained on the lawn in their respective picnic baskets. Instead, applause and shouts of encouragement and appreciation rang out across the park for music that’s both quite abstract and quite energetic, as you’ll hear.
The lineup for that day was quite close to what’s normally a working Chicago-based band. Rempis, Baker, and Ra constitute ¾’s of that regular unit, and are normally joined by bassist Joshua Abrams as documented on three previous Aerophonic Records releases – Aphelion, Perihelion, and Apsis. Unfortunately, due to a booking snafu with the festival, Abrams was already committed to a tour with his outstanding band Natural Information Society in Europe at the time. After some deliberation, the remaining members decided it would be best to do the performance with another bass player in his stead, and since Norwegian phenom Ingebrigt Håker Flaten was in town that weekend for another performance with Rob Mazurek’s Desert Encrypts, it only made sense to draft him into the fold. Flaten has worked regularly with all of these musicians over the years, and as Ra said at the time “he and I just have a hook up.” Although Abrams’ voice was greatly missed as a crucial part of the language developed by this band over the years, Flaten did a remarkable job in his stead, providing an interesting take on the vision of what this ensemble is and does.
This recording came directly from the mixing board in Millennium Park, and although the basic sound is quite good, it’s not ideal for hard copy release since it’s not possible to mix individual instruments differently. But, it provides a special documentation of an important historical event, and goshdarnit, the music’s really good! So check it out….
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Jim Baker – piano/electronics
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Avreeayl Ra – drums/percussion
Recorded live at The Chicago Jazz Festival
Millenium Park / Pritzker Pavilion
September 1st, 2019
Recorded directly off the live mixing board feed
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Neil Tesser, The Jazz Institute of Chicago, and the City of Chicago/DCASE
(ARd009) Tripel/Dubbel
(ARd009) Tripel/Dubbel
This fiery quartet recording was made during a one-week European tour organized by Norwegian drummer Tollef Østvang as part of his ongoing Chicago Connections collaboration, which has featured artists including Keefe Jackson, Josh Berman, Mars Williams, Ben Lamar Gay, Dave Rempis, Nick Mazzarella, and jaimie branch in collaboration with their Norwegian counterparts since it’s inception in 2014. The band had kicked the tour off with a bang at the ArtActs Festival in St Johan, Austria the night before, celebrating with friends until the wee hours, and leaving directly for a long travel day up to Antwerp at 7 am with nary a wink. As always, the energy of the remarkable audience at De Studio, built over many years by the insane dedication and hard work of Oorstof organizers Christel Kumpen and Koen Vandenhoudt, revved the band back to life in no time.
This transatlantic pairing of American front line and Norwegian rhythm section has proved a powerful combination over the last decade, and it certainly doesn’t fail here. And although branch and Rempis have worked together since 2005, when the latter returned to her home town after spending several years in school in Boston, this is the first commercially available recording they’re featured on together! Their long-time relationship as friends and musical colleagues is openly on display here, the playful give and take and bits of teasing one-upmanship pushing the momentum of the music forward. Of course the juggernaut rhythm section steaming away underneath them doesn’t hurt with that. Flaten and Østvang both hail from the same corner of Norway, in the mountains outside of Trondheim, and seem to have a musical affinity that may stem from that geographic proximity. All of these bandmates have overlapping connections and history that makes this unit one to watch out for.
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jaimie branch – trumpet
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Tollef Østvang – drums
Recorded live at De Studio, Antwerp, Belgium
March 10th, 2018
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Koen Vandenhoudt
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Christel Kumpen, Koen Vandenhoudt, Oorstof, & Sound In Motion
(ARd008) The Eagle
(ARd008) The Eagle
Recorded at the venerable and longstanding Chicago tavern The Hungry Brain in March of 2019, this release showcases young New York experimentalist Michael Foster on a front line with Chicago firebreather Dave Rempis, trading riffs on top of a framework supported by versatile journeyman bassist Jason Roebke, and the energetic percussion work of Tyler Damon. This is one of those classic Chicago sessions, produced in a comfortable environment where the musicians feel relaxed and ready to see what happens. As often is the case at the Hungry Brain, this may have happened with the supportive encouragement of Dan, the man behind the bar.
Foster was a featured artist on Rempis’ yearly Exposure Series at Elastic Arts in March of 2018, after having first met in Brooklyn in 2016. He and Rempis have locked horns before, most notably on several occasions in New York joined by Brandon Lopez on bass and former Chicagoan Weasel Walter on drums. This time, on Rempis’ home turf, they assembled a group made up of some of his close collaborators. He and Roebke have worked together since 1998, although their last recorded output was on Rempis’ 482 Music release Out of Season in 2005. Rempis and Damon currently work together in the well-known trio unit Kuzu. This was the first time that Foster had encountered either musician. The concert is presented here in its full two-set format.
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Michael Foster – soprano/tenor saxophone
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Jason Roebke – bass
Tyler Damon – drums
Recorded live at the Hungry Brain, Chicago
March 17th, 2019
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
(ARd007) Hornithology
(ARd007) Hornithology
Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams has been a hero to Dave Rempis since the younger musician first saw him perform at the now defunct Chicago venue The Lunar Cabaret in the summer of 1995 with his Albert Ayler-inspired band Witches And Devils. Williams’ ripping sound and fearless approach was an inspiration to Rempis as a young musician in town searching for his own voice. A couple of years later in 1997, when Williams left the Vandermark Five since his performance schedule with his own bands had become too dense to also commit to Vandermark’s working unit, Rempis was hired to fill his shoes. Not an easy task for a 22-year old upstart!
Since that time, the two have worked together in countless contexts, including in the legendary NRG Ensemble, developing a musical and personal affinity that runs deep. Their shared sense of humor and no-holds-barred approach to the instrument makes them a natural pairing, as this duo concert from Chicago’s Elastic Arts in November 2016 shows. The music here moves from in-your-face squawks and squalls to thoughtful, pastoral explorations of harmony and timbre. These are two improvisers who embody what could be called the Chicago School approach – embracing whatever musical territory they find themselves in and carving a path through it to the next thing, without getting hung up in the type of competing dogmas about “how” to improvise that bogs down so many other scenes. These two roll up their sleeves, listen to one another, and do it. A straightforward midwestern approach that provides great freedom in its simplicity.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/baritone saxophone
Mars Williams – sopranino/soprano/alto/tenor saxophone
Recorded live at Elastic Arts, Chicago
November 7th, 2016
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
(ARd006) Live in Chicago 2013
(ARd006) Live in Chicago 2013
(ARd005) Hit The Ground Running
(ARd005) Hit The Ground Running
“Each player is allowed to express where they are now in their jazz thinking but still have the foresight and self control to propel the track and calm the track whenever it is needed.” -Philip Coombs, Free Jazz Blog
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On the traumatic day after the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States on November 8th, 2016, a recording session had been scheduled at Elastic Arts in Chicago for a new trio. Two members of the trio – Dave Rempis and Tim Daisy, had been working together in various contexts in the Chicago improvised music scene for years. They were invited by up-and-coming piano wunderkind Matt Piet to be a part of an ongoing series of first meetings that he’d released on his Amalgam imprint. (This recording soon came out as Cure For The Quotidian) The feeling in the room, in the city of Chicago, and around much of the United States was dark in a way no one had ever before experienced. The music that came out that day was an honest and direct expression of that energy.
Afterwards, Piet threw out the idea of a benefit concert to coincide with the new “president’s” inauguration. Daisy spearheaded the charge, and put together a stellar event at Elastic Arts on January 21st, 2017, the same day as the monumental Women’s March that took place around the world. The concert featured a solo set by Darin Gray, the debut of Ken Vandermark’s new quintet Marker, the duo of Ben Lamar Gay and Ayana Contreras, and this trio. The energy of that evening was indescribable – the packed room felt defiant yet loving, angry yet calm, fearful yet fully empowered to take on the new reality of the unimaginable political situation in our country. And the music from each group reflected those feelings in a different and powerful way.
All proceeds from the event went to benefit Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Matt Piet – piano
Tim Daisy – drums
Long Night Ahead 24:24
Keep Alert 17:08
Recorded live at Elastic Arts in Chicago
January 21st, 2017
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
(ARd004) Nettles
(ARd004) Nettles
“The intensity comes not from volume, but from the intricate combination of tempos, configurations, and evolving motifs.” -Paul Acquaro, Free Jazz Blog
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In the summer of 2013, guitarist Joe Morris decided to thoroughly acquaint himself with the vibrant Chicago creative music scene. Although he’d worked with plenty of Chicago musicians over the years, including regular collaborations with percussionist Hamid Drake and reedist Ken Vandermark, it had been many years since Morris had spent any significant time in the city. So he undertook a series of concerts, organized by Vandermark, which placed him in a number of different contexts alongside many of his Chicago-based counterparts, including this string-heavy date at Elastic Arts.
From the start, this ad-hoc quartet took advantage of an unusual instrumentation to produce some austere and starkly beautiful music. Each member contributes quickly interweaving lines that occasionally burst to the fore, but tend more often to wrap themselves into one other, hiding in plain sight amongst the unified whole. Cloaking their individual timbres into a sinewy mass, the result is a tight and fascinating exploration of contrapuntal improvisation.
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Dave Rempis – alto/baritone saxophone
Joe Morris – guitar
Tomeka Reid – cello
Jim Baker – piano
Recorded live at Elastic Arts in Chicago, IL
August 8th, 2013
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Ken Vandermark for his help in organizing this concert.
(ARd003) Neutral Nation
(ARd003) Neutral Nation
“There is nothing traditional about the work of this trio, the lack of rhythm and harmonic support leaves a big space for their ideas to grow.” -Paul Acquaro, Free Jazz Blog
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This live recording finds the collaborative trio of Rempis, Johnston, and Ochs hard at work in the middle of their first full-on North American tour in May of 2015. Documenting a concert from the landmark venue Hallwalls in Buffalo, NY, the trio follows up on their previous release, 2014’s Spectral, having taken their unique approach to spontaneous composition to the next level through the crucible that only touring can provide. On this new recording they tackle two pieces that are significantly more extended than the ones documented on their earlier release, while still employing the same core strategy that made that recording so compelling; an ability to look far down the road in order to anticipate the larger structures that can emerge from even the slightest gesture. The trio moves with patience, and capitalizes on space, waiting for the appropriate moments to strike, always at the service of the ensemble motion.
As this process unfolds, they employ a seemingly endless wealth of musical approaches, in which lush harmonies dissolve into breathy overtones and tea kettle whispers, which then shift into snarls and smears of sound built up thick and chunky on the canvas. At other times, all three show the ability to swoop in like so many vultures, pile onto a phrase, and then drop off individually as if falling off their own respective cliff. Meanwhile the rough and tumble timbres of Ochs’ gruff but tender tenor sound mix with Johnston’s seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of the myriad mute techniques of the early-Ellington trumpet sections, to create a pallet of unbelievable breadth. This live document truly shows a band at a creative and developmental peak.
credits
released March 8, 2016
Dave Rempis – alto/baritone saxophone
Darren Johnston – trumpet
Larry Ochs – sopranino/tenor saxophone
All compositions by Rempis/Johnston/Ochs
Recorded live at Hallwalls in Buffalo, NY, May 21st, 2015 by Bill Sack
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to David Kennedy, Steve Baczkowski, and all of the folks at Hallwalls, as well as to Kate Dumbleton for her ongoing support of this project and so many others.
(ARd002) Wistfully
(ARd002) Wistfully
“The album, recorded live in Graz, Austria in 2013, features Rempis on alto and tenor sax, Harnik on piano, and Zerang on percussion, yet even this simple listing misrepresents the range of each performer’s contribution.” -Lee Rice Epstein, Free Jazz Blog
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This live trio recording was made in the late fall of 2013, and features a first-time grouping of improvisers that had never performed as a unit before, despite their interweaving musical paths. Pianist Harnik first came into contact with her Chicago counterparts at the 2008 Umbrella Music Festival, when both audiences and musicians in the city became immediately enamored with her unique and wide-ranging approach to her instrument based on her Chicago Cultural Center performance. In the years after, she began ongoing collaborations with Rempis and Zerang, performing separately with them in both the U.S. and Europe.
In the fall of 2013, Rempis and Zerang had just finished a week in Krakow, Poland, working with Ken Vandermark’s Resonance Ensemble. They continued on to perform as a duo at concerts in Warsaw and Vienna, before meeting Harnik in her hometown of Graz, Austria to explore this first-time trio grouping at a well-known concert venue called WIST. Happily, Austrian National Radio (ORF) got wind of the occasion, and decided to make a recording for live broadcast, a document presented here.
While fans of the music might imagine that all three of these strong voices contribute equally to the proceedings, they wouldn’t be incorrect. However it’s Harnik’s jaw-dropping ability to reconfigure the entire sound of her piano from one piece to the next that shapes each of these six improvisations into individual alien landscapes all their own. Deploying an incredible range of timbres from full-throated, lush chords, to the clanging, metallic tones of an Indonesian gamelan, Harnik deftly manipulates her instrument to paint the backgrounds on which Rempis and Zerang then build.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone
Elisabeth Harnik – piano
Michael Zerang – percussion
All compositions by Rempis/Harnik/Zerang
Recorded live at WIST in Graz, Austria, November 29th, 2013
by Norbert Stadlhofer and Franz Josef Kerstinger. Originally used for live broadcast on Austrian National Radio (ORF)
Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to the staff and crew of ORF, and to Ludwig Sik.
(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.