Jazz Articles about Ken Vandermark

Ken Vandermark: That Was Now

by Rex Butters
October 28, 2005

For almost a decade, the Vandermark 5 has been the main outlet for the diabolically driven and creative Ken Vandermark. Spreading his involvement across at least ten active and demanding musical enterprises, Vandermark's main outlet still remains the V5. This year for the third time in its history the quintet loses a founding member, this time trombone titan Jeb Bishop, who also joined Vandermark in several of his side projects, as well as maintaining side projects of his own.

Between ...

Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love: Dual Pleasure 2

by Rex Butters
April 25, 2005

Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love return for another series of take-no-prisoner duets on Dual Pleasure 2, a sequel to their pairing last year. This two-disc set presents a collection of studio performances and a concert appearance. The studio work presents nine relatively short pieces that catalogue a wide range of mood and color. The live disc delivers three extended works that measure the musicians' remarkable rapport, creative drive, and endurance. Moving from bass clarinet to Bb clarinet and tenor sax, ...

Ken Vandermark: Radiale, Gambit, and Elements of Style, Exercises in Surprise

by Jeff Stockton
October 23, 2004

Ken Vandermark continues to issue recordings at a wildly prolific rate, yet for all the similarities, each one of his projects offers something different. And while charting the genealogy of his collaborative relationships can be like figuring out who is brother to whom on a soap opera, the crucial member of the two trios under consideration here - Spaceways Inc. and Tripleplay - is bassist Nate McBride. Influenced as much by Mike Watt as by Ron Carter, McBride brings a ...

Vandermark x2

by Derek Taylor
August 7, 2004

Surf by Ken Vandermark's website and you'll find evidence of a cottage industry. The industrious Chicagoan continues a relentless pace of touring and recording, releasing a generous handful of discs with each passing year. What's equally impressive about his activities is the number of people on board behind his grand designs. Myriad labels including Okkadisk , Atavistic , Wobbly Rail , Boxholder and more recently European imprints like Small Town Super Sound and Clean Feed all serve as conduits for ...

A Fireside Chat with The Vandermark 5

by AAJ Staff
July 30, 2004

Although The Vandermark 5 bears his name, Ken Vandermark is practical enough to realize V5's success should be credited to members Jeb Bishop, Tim Daisy, Kent Kessler, and Dave Rempis. For it is their commitment and loyalty that allows V5 to be a seasoned quintet unlike any other in modern music. V5's popularity obscures musical genres, cultural boundaries, political divides, country borders, limits of age, to command consideration from post-Cold War Yugoslavia to the bright lights, big city of Chicago. ...

Ken Vandermark: Furniture Music

by Derek Taylor
January 8, 2004

The title of Ken Vandermark’s new (and first) solo album connotes a certain sort of familiarity through its imbedded analogy: the conception of music as something functional and reassuring that can become a regular part of one’s personal landscape. Rest assured though, this isn’t your father’s favorite easy chair, or his most treasured Bing Crosby record either, for that matter. Vandermark plants his feet firmly in fresh musical terrain born staunchly of his own devising.

As has been ...

A Fireside Chat With Ken Vandermark

by AAJ Staff
April 17, 2003

Improvised music post-Wynton has been a barren wasteland of record company manufactured 'young lions' or all-star jam sessions. All have done nothing to advance the music, but instead have relegated improvisation to historical overviews. Being a card-carrying member of Gen X, I have no interest is hearing, much less seeing, how well someone can play a Monk tune, considering I can pop in Brilliant Corners and get it from the source. Brass tax is even a bleaker when considering the ...