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Damon Locks
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers
by Mark Corroto
The similarities between Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra and Sun Ra's Arkestra are numerous. Both leaders travel the spaceways via the technologies available in their time, applied through dynamic rhythm and pulse. For Ra, his sound began when he was an apprentice in Fletcher Henderson's band in the 1940s, and Mazurek's 1990s work revolved around Isotope 217 and the various Chicago Underground (and later São Paulo Underground) ensembles. Both bandleaders were composers of their time, nonetheless they always create music ...
read moreJazz & Spoken Word Show
by David Brown
This week, The Jazz & Spoken Word Show. Featuring Damon Locks, Fred Moten, Trapeta B. Mason; Tributes to NYC from Charles Mingus and George Russell; John Zorn's homage to Mike Hammer detective adventures with Spillane, plus works from William Parker, The Exploding Star Orchestra, Irreversible Entanglements and Gil Scott Heron. Word up! Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 01:00 Duke Ellington “Moon Maiden" from The Intimate Ellington (Pablo Records) 02:30 Sons of ...
read moreDamon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: Now
by Chris May
Chicago-based collective Black Monument Ensemble's sophomore album was recorded in September 2020 at the intersection of various existential crises, as seen from a US perspective: the threat of Trump winning the presidential election, by fair means or foul; the rising tide of fascist ideology; extrajudicial murders of, in particular but not exclusively, black Americans; a galloping pandemic; economic chaos; and social isolation. Given the circumstances, it is no surprise that Now sounds apocalyptic. But it is also ...
read moreRob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra: Dimensional Stardust
by Karl Ackermann
Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist Rob Mazurek has made his Exploding Star Orchestra the centerpiece of his larger groups. In this formation, he finds ample room to channel his disparate influences such as Sun Ra and Bill Dixon, and the distinctions he's absorbed as a global citizen. On Dimensional Stardust Mazurek and a dozen collaborators present an energetic, always changeable, genre-less mélange of styles held together by imagination and daring. The imposing Exploding Star Orchestra includes flautist Nicole ...
read moreDamon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: Where Future Unfolds
by Gareth Thompson
A creative force known as the Black Renaissance emerged on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s and developed through the next decades. This movement produced visual artists, writers and musicians, who explored new ideals of black culture via theatre, art works and composition to address social issues. Damon Locks might seem a modern torch-bearer for this crusade, having been active in Chicago for years on many fronts. Of late he has done sound and animation work with previously ...
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