Chicago Jazz Festival 2013: Thursday

First up - apologies for being slack with the updates. Now I'm playing catch up.
Chicago Jazz Festival: August 29 - September 1st
I could only get along to the first three days as I was in NYC from September 1st. Here's a brief rundown of some of what I heard. Hopefully I can remember the ins and outs of it all - sometimes my notebook is a little vague. 

Thursday: Chicago Cultural Center
Arrived during the set by Fat Babies - a retro Chicago-style group playing traditional jazz from the 1920's & 30's - Beau Sample (b) Alex Hall (d) Jake Sanders (banjo) Paul Asaro (p) Dave Bock (tb) John Otto (alto sax/clar) Andy Schumm (cornet) & John Doyle (tenor sax). The over-flowing crowd had me listening from the staircase… an obstructed view but the band we sounding good.
Then headed upstairs for Randy Weston's solo piano set. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Weston's (though I have barely scratched the surface of his music). Not much written in my notebook here. The set had it's moments, he played well but I left feeling a bit like "Ok, I've seen Randy Weston…. next."
















The evening concert in Millennium Park was Jack DeJohnette's Special Legends Edition Chicago. A title like that needs some weight behind it….and there was - joining DeJohnette (drums) were Muhal Richard Abrams (piano) Larry Gray (bass/cello) Roscoe Mitchell (alto/soprano/sopranino saxes, recorder and flute) and Henry Threadgill (alto sax/bass flute). 
I often feel wary of the "all-star" groups thrown together for festivals this set did not disappoint. Playing original works by Abrams, Mitchell, DeJohnette and Threadgill and a free improvisation (I think) for the encore, it was a very cohesive set of uncompromising music. Wonderful to hear these guys till going strong and taking the music places. A great opening night for the main stage in front of a sizable crowd (I was down the front was it was a bit hard to judge numbers on the lawn).

Roscoe Mitchell at Constellation

More catching up to do.....

Mitchell in flight on Sopranino

The night following the panel discussion at the Cultural Center the Roscoe Mitchell (Alto/Soprano/Sopranino Saxophones, Baroque(?) Flute) Mike Reed (Drums/Percussion) duo were at Constellation.  As I mentioned in the last post I had been listening to a bit of Mitchell lately so this was a concert not to be missed. 

Not quite a sell out - perhaps not quite as many as for the ICP Orchestra which I found a bit surprising with Mitchell's music being such an important part of the music to come out of Chicago I figured people would be beating down the doors to get in. All the same it was good to see people getting out on a less than pleasant evening (last night of snow for the season).
The set started out with a solo piece from Mitchell on alto sax. Starting with multiphonics and sustained quiet notes the piece grew in intensity as Mitchell added more and more notes to the mix.

Reed joined Mitchell for the rest of the set playing two long improvisations. The piece had Mitchell starting on flute before working his way through his saxes from high to low. At times he was alternating phrases on sopranino and soprano and finished off flying around the lower register of the alto at a burning tempo. The second duo started off with Reed playing solo. Mitchell entered playing simple melodies on alto - quite the contrast to the end of the last duo - reminded me of what he had to say at the panel discussion about studying opposites.

Whether he was using sticks, brushes, mallets, or what appeared to be an amplified tank drum, Reed's playing was superb throughout the evening.

Following the gig I only had to wait ten minutes for the snow to stop making waiting for the bus somewhat more pleasant.

Surround Sound: Prairie and Beyond

Well.... after a week away I have some catching up to do.  

A couple of weeks back Roscoe Mitchell was in town.  Having been introduced to his work a couple of years back via the Art Ensemble of Chicago - in recent months I have been listening to a few of his works as a leader - "Sound" (Delmark 1966)... his classic sextet recording as well as the solo albums "The Solo Concert" (AECO 1974) "Live at the Muhle Hunziken (Cecma 1986) and "Solo [3]" (Mutable 2003).

L-R: Roelstraete, Decker, Vandermark, Jennings, Mitchell

Mitchell was one of the panelists for a discussion titles "Surround Sound: Prairie and Beyond" held at the Chicago Cultural Center.  The rest of the panel were:
Dieter Roelstraete (Moderator) - Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Pamela L. Jennings - has the long-winded title of... "Program Director for the Human Centered Computing Cluster programs and Cyberlearning Transforming Education programs in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation."
Shawn Decker - Sound Artist. His work is currently on display at the Cultural Center.
Ken Vandermark - reed player/improvisor/composer etc etc

I was quite keen to hear what Vandermark and Mitchell had to say on the topics of Improvisation, Sound, and Space.... here are some of the scribbles from my notebook.

Roscoe Mitchell:
*** Silence is already perfect - what are you going to do when you interrupt it?***

Study of opposites - how things work at one end vs the other to gain a better understanding of the middle.

We don't learn from each other if we are all the same.

Keep your mind open.

Take a small part of music and really study it and get underneath it.

Playing with nature - excellent practice for musicians.

AACM
- like minds with a shared vision
- more control over your own destiny
- control of your music
- training programs for young musicians
- exchange programs with other cities... Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis
- taking music out of the clubs and into the concert hall

Ken Vandermark - on his relationship with his instruments
- It all starts there
- The struggle between myself and the horn. Finding out what I can & can't do leads to new things

 All in all there was some interesting discussion and I'm glad I got along. The notes above give me plenty to think about.

Recent Listening March 12 2013

Recent Listening - from the last week and a bit

Jimmy Giuffre: 

Flight, Bremen 1961 (Hatology) 

The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet (Atlantic)

Steve Lacy Five: The Way (Hatology)

Lennie Tristano: Intuition (Capitol) 

Warne Marsh: Personal Statement (Interplay)

Hayden Chisholm: Circe (Jazz Haus Musik)

King Oliver: Jazz Greats (a random compilation)

Son House: Father of The Delta Blues (sony)

Olivier Messiaen: The Works for Orchestra (disc 8)(Hanssler Classic)

Chris Kelsey Trio: The Ingenious Gentleman of the Lower East Side (CIMP)

Roscoe Mitchell Solo: Live At The Muhle Hunziken (cecma)