Friday, January 22, 2010
Ars
Nova Workshop in Residence
Ken Vandermark performs the music of Don Cherry
Ken Vandermark, reeds; Dave Rempis, saxophones; Jeb
Bishop, trombone; Jason Adasciewicz, vibraphone; Pandelis
Karayorgis, Fender Rhodes, piano + electronics; Nate McBride,
electric + double-bass + electronics, Chad Taylor, drums
MacArthur Fellow Ken Vandermark will premiere new arrangements
of “Complete Communion,” Cherry’s adventurous
1966 Blue Note Records debut and composition now understood
as one of the key innovations in the Free Jazz movement. Vandermark
intends “not to replicate those pieces, but to use Cherry’s
suite-like approach and apply it to a large ensemble.”
Considered Cherry’s masterpiece, “Complete Communion”
is an exhilarating continual dialogue between ensemble members.
For the past 20 years, MacArthur Fellow
Ken Vandermark has been exploring and working to expand the
possibilities of improvised and composed music in North America
and Europe. Since moving to Chicago from Boston in 1989, he's
performed and recorded in a variety of contexts and with many
internationally renowned musicians. Past groups of significance
include NRG Ensemble, DKV Trio, AALY, FME, Vandermark Quartet,
Spaceways Inc. and School Days. Currently, the majority of
his work as a composer and improviser has been directed toward
the Vandermark 5, Powerhouse Sound, the Frame Quartet, the
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Sonore, duets with the
percussionists Tim Daisy and Paal Nilssen-Love, the Territory
Band and Free Fall. Upcoming projects include iTi (with Johannes
Bauer, Thomas Lehn, Paal Nilssen-Love), Lean Left (with Terrie
Ex, Andy Moor, Paal Nilssen-Love), a collaboration with the
Italian trio ZU, and the Resonance Ensemble, an international
group featuring ten musicians from Poland, Sweden and the
Ukraine.
In addition to creating music, Vandermark
has made many significant and highly respected contributions
to both the local and international jazz and improvised music
scenes through organizing concerts in Chicago and sponsoring
North American tours with various ensembles. In 1996, he and
writer John Corbett began organizing the Empty Bottle "Wednesday
Night Jazz Series” - concerts that brought musicians
from Chicago, North America and Europe to audiences on a weekly
basis for nearly a decade. Starting in April 2006, he has
continued this work by co-directing the "Immediate Sound
Series" with Mitch Cocanig at the Hideout. Since the
fall of 2005 he has also been a member of Umbrella Music,
a musician based group of organizers collaborating in Chicago.
His work as a presenter led to the invitation to act as creative
director for the ACME Festival, a four-day event held in Athens,
Georgia, which featured concerts and workshops involving 21
musicians from Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United States.
