Results for "Chicago"

Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare

by John Chacona
December 13, 2023

In 2021, the Chicago instrumental drone trio Bitchin Bajas dropped Switched on Ra (Drag City), a collection of Sun Ra covers for synthesizers. Drummer, bandleader and scenemaker Mike Reed probably heard the cassette-only release and he almost certainly heard the band's October 2021 performance of that material at his Hungry Brain venue. They must have made ...

Bonzo Squad Smashes The Norm With New Christmas Album

November 30, 2023

An annual tradition that started seven years ago as a gift to the band, bassist Andrew Vogt arranged a batch of Christmas songs for the group to play, fitted snugly on top of existing Bonzo Squad music. This February, they took that music into Rax Trax Studios and recorded it for future holidays, when they are ...

Bonzo Squad

Bonzo Squad is an instrumental ensemble with a focus on creating music that sets the bar higher in terms of eclecticism and musicianship. The group consists of Bonzo himself, born Corbin Andrick, who plays saxophones, flute, and percussion. Completing the line up are Andrew Lawrence (keys and synths), Andrew Vogt bass, as well as Zack Marks sitting behind the drum kit. The band released their very first, self-titled album back in 2017. This release was received really well from the get-go, earning a coveted 4-star rating from Downbeat Magazine, as well as appearing on Spotify’s popular “The State of Jazz” playlist. The band’s debut was later topped with a second release in 2019, “There’s Always Tomorrow.” Recently, the squad released a third record entitled “Pachyderm.”

Ethan Philion: Gnosis

by John Chacona
November 23, 2023

When it comes to making memorable entrances, Ethan Philion is on a par with Seinfeld's Kramer. The Chicago bassist burst into the scene with Meditations on Mingus (Sunnyside Records, 2022), an audacious debut recording on which he arranged familiar selections and deep cuts from the towering jazz bassist Charles Mingus. On Gnosis, the forces are smaller ...

Perry Wortman

Born: November 30, 1978

Perry Wortman is a bassist who spent fifteen years in Brooklyn playing music that didn't fit neatly into a genre: South Indian Carnatic classical repertoire, jazz trios, old American folk songs, chamber writing, indie rock. He has mostly worked as a sideman, and he's good at the part of the job that doesn't get written about, which is making a band sound like a band.

He grew up in Tulsa and moved to New York to study with Buster Williams at the New School, then finished his degree at the Manhattan School of Music with Jay Anderson. His first record came out of those years. The Paislies was recorded in Brooklyn in 2005 and released by Fresh Sound New Talent, the Barcelona label that gave Robert Glasper, Kris Davis and Ambrose Akinmusire their early records. The band was nominally led by drummer Paul Wiltgen and guitarist Jesse Lewis, but it ran as a composers' collective. The music sat between jazz and progressive rock. They toured Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM by Paul Steinbeck

by Tom Spargo
November 6, 2023

Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM Paul Steinbeck 272 Pages ISBN-13: 978-0-226-82953-1University of Chicago PressHardback 2022/ Paperback 2023 Paul Steinbeck's Sound Experiments is a historical narrative and technical analysis of the music of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Steinbeck traces the chronology of this wildly creative organization from ...

Dan Phillips

Born: December 8, 1965

Dan Phillips is an American guitarist, composer and band leader who has worked professionally in New York, Chicago, Bangkok and Tokyo as well as touring globally. Dan is the leader of the critically acclaimed Chicago Edge Ensemble, Quartet Next, Dan Phillips Trio, Dan Phillips Quartet. Dan has performed with jazz musicians such as Hamid Drake, Gerald Wilson, Danilo Pérez, Avreeayl Ra, Michael Zerang, Dave Rempis, Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Jim Baker , and Ed Thigpen and many more.

Introducing New Subscriptions From Rutz Music Works

August 21, 2023

This week a new page called In The Loop has been launched from Markus Rutz Music Works. The subscription selections are The Chicagoan & The Global Citizen. These continue an ongoing newsletter and expands to include offerings for those who become subscribers. Engagement with music making is in the form of access to recording catalog, videos, ...

Which Came First—Jazz or Baseball?

by Con Chapman
August 17, 2023

Baseball and jazz rank high among the objects of my affection, and have several things in common: Both are distinctively American products with foreign roots; both are inexhaustible sources of enjoyment, at least to me; and both are popular in the best sense of that word, with broad appeal across ages, races and classes.

The Jazz Historian: John Edward Hasse

by B.D. Lenz
August 17, 2023

Jazz is not simply a style of music; it is also a culture. The impact of this cultural force has had many ups and downs throughout the last century but, undeniably, has been felt worldwide across all nations and all languages. With such a storied past, it's important that an account of its beginnings and those ...