Jazz Articles about Bridge 61

Bridge 61: Journal

by Chris May
August 31, 2006

Ken Vandermark plays rather like William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac wrote in the heat of their automatic writing experiments. Each writer would consume industrial quantities of recreational drugs--mainly speed and psilocybin, a Jedi-only combination with the kick of mule--sit down at a typewriter, and become the conduit for a best-selling masterpiece which would write itself, allowing the author to retire rich, young and relatively healthy. It was an attractive strategy, but unfortunately it never worked out. The writing was drivel. ...

Bridge 61: Journal

by Troy Collins
July 18, 2006

Windy City-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and leader Ken Vandermark has long split his time between leadership duties and membership in collective ensembles. Bridge 61 is his newest collaborational foray. Sharing composing duties with his fellow improvisers in this democratic unit, Vandermark enables greater exposure for the writing talents of his bandmates by virtue of his relatively popular status among fans of improvised music.

Two longstanding sidemen join Vandermark here--drummer Tim Daisy (Vandermark 5) and bassist Nate McBride (Spaceways Inc., ...