Chicago Underground Quartet

Chicago Underground Quartet: Good Days

by Karl Ackermann
March 1, 2020

Of the many Rob Mazurek led groups, his Chicago Underground collective has been the most prolific and adventurous cooperative with seven duo outings and another four trio releases. The quartet version of Chicago Underground, like the 1998 “Orchestra" formation, had issued only one album, the self-titled debut on the Thrill Jockey label in 2001. A one-off quartet project (Chicago/London Underground) A Night Walking Through Mirrors (Cuneiform Records, 2017) featured Mazurek, drummer Chad Taylor, British pianist Alexander Hawkins, and bassist John ...

Chicago Underground Quartet: Chicago Underground Quartet

by Mark Corroto
August 1, 2001

Heirs to Sun Ra’s legacy of creative music, the Chicago Underground Quartet provides proof of such honor with their self-named release. The Chicago Underground, be it in duo, trio or their present four-man lineup, cover open-ended creative music with feet planted in the avant-garde’s past and music’s future.

The band’s members shuffled between gigs in numerous groups including Tortoise, Isotope 217, Stereolab, Brokeback, and The Aluminum Group, to name a few. Their collective experience produces music readily copied by teen ...

Chicago Underground Quartet: Chicago Underground Quartet

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2001

They've been a duo, they've been a trio, and they've been an orchestra--so why stop there? As the Chicago Underground Quartet has evolved, it's expanded cornetist Rob Mazurek's very democratic vision. On its eponymous debut, the CUQ covers a broad range of styles from percolating polyrhythm (as on the opener, “Tunnel Chrome"), to gentle lyricism ("Three in the Morning"), to spacious improv ("Sink, Charge, Fixture"), to all-out energy music ("Welcome")... with lots of stops in between. The most exciting moments ...