Jazz Articles about Chicago Underground Duo

Chicago Underground Duo: Locus

by Troy Collins
March 7, 2014

For over 17 years Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor have collaborated as the Chicago Underground Duo, a long-running partnership that has served as the core foundation for larger configurations of the group, including Trio, Quartet and Orchestra. The expansive nature of the ensemble's fluctuating personnel and the subsequent diversity of music produced has been a direct reflection of the founding members' varied interests and ensuing career paths.Mazurek's reputation as a bold electro-acoustic sound sculptor is well established, but ...

Chicago Underground Duo: Boca Negra

by Chris May
January 19, 2010

Drummer Chad Taylor's and cornetist Rob Mazurek's intention with Boca Negra is to present the listener with “an emotional experience that transcends the idea of genre or label." The principle of inclusiveness starts with the recording location, Sao Paulo in Brazil, and continues through to the album's packaging: the cover shot was taken on the shore of the Dead Sea, while the title, which means “black mouth," comes from Tenerife in the Canary Isles (where it was coined to describe ...

Chad Taylor & Rob Mazurek: Chicago Underground Duo

by David Adler
January 16, 2010

Chicago Underground DuoBoca NegraThrill Jockey2009 Rob MazurekSound IsDelmark2009 Chad TaylorCircle Down482 Music2009 No account of American jazz in the '00s would be complete without a thorough look at the Chicago scene. The year 2009 was a good one, with strong recordings from Mike Reed, Josh Berman, ...

Chicago Underground Trio: Chronicle

by Nic Jones
August 14, 2007

Chicago Underground Trio Chronicle Delmark 2007

This DVD marks a break with precedent for Delmark in terms of its content. Whereas their previous titles have documented live performances in the raw with little in the way of visual stimulus outside that of the musicians working, this one is lent a contemplative air through the visual input and direction of Raymond Salvatore Harmon, a man who, if the evidence here is anything to ...

Chicago Underground Trio: Chronicle

by Troy Collins
May 23, 2007

Chicago Underground Trio Chronicle Delmark 2007

Filmed at Chicago's German Cultural center, Chronicle presents the Chicago Underground Trio in a new light, literally. Cornetist/composer Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor have been releasing projects under the banner of the Chicago Underground for almost a decade. While the line-up tends to vary in size, the core duo always remains. Here they are augmented by one--bassist Jason Ajemian, making his first recorded appearance with the group ...

Chicago Underground Duo: Two Voices, One Sound

by Paul Olson
April 3, 2006

Percussionist Chad Taylor and cornet player Rob Mazurek are the Chicago Underground Duo. Since the Chicago Underground collective expands or contracts with each project, they're also two-thirds of the Chicago Underground Trio and half of the Chicago Underground Quartet. Born in the 1990s out of the fertile Chicago improv scene, the group has, in its various permutations, produced a consistently excellent body of recorded music that mixes large amounts of improvisation with electronica, sampling, and a vast assortment of world ...

Chicago Underground Duo: In Praise of Shadows

by Troy Collins
February 27, 2006

Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor regroup once again for their fourth album as the Chicago Underground Duo and ninth under the Chicago Underground moniker. The project has varied in size from duo, trio and quartet to orchestra, but the core of Mazurek and Taylor have always been its heartbeat. Utilizing occasional overdubbing and tastefully augmented post-production, In Praise of Shadows is their most stylistically varied and sonically dense recording.

Taking the title from Junichiro Tanizaki's early-20th Century essay ...