Chicago Edge Ensemble: The Individualists

Let's trot out the old New York versus Chicago rivalry. Just like with their sports teams (Jets vs. Bears, Knicks vs. Bulls, etc.) music fans feel a need to chose sides. It has been like that since Louis Armstrong left the Windy City for the Big Apple in 1924 and Sun Ra in 1961. Sure NYC is the center of the world for individual jazz musicians, but Chicago has always been a more communal place for music making. Consider the creative energies of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, the Vandermark 5, Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society, and Mike Reed's People, Places & Things, to name just a few of the Chicago body politic.

Add to that list guitarist Dan Phillips's Chicago Edge Ensemble. The Individualists is the third release by this quintet and it follows Insidious Anthem (Trost, 2018) and Decaying Orbit (Music+, 2017). The lineup has shifted a bit with cornetist Josh Berman stepping in for Mars Williams, plus trombonist Jeb Bishop, and drummer Hamid Drake. In the Chicago tradition, each of these musicians are members of multiple ensembles. Phillips simply draws on his crew's experience and knowledge for another triumphant interaction.

The music has that unique Chicago cooperative feel throughout. Phillips composed and arranged all the music except for "Mutualism In Action," the one wholly improvised track. Even that piece, with its scattered notes and tones, has an internal logic. Elsewhere, the sound organizes itself after a bit of mayhem "Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion Obligation" or trades in some intentional but orchestrated anarchy "Blue Bakunin" before Phillip's guitar is guided by some slick horn charts. The ensemble makes the complex twists sound simple and the journey here is quite groove accessible.