Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm lived in Chicago for 22 years. During that time, he was ubiquitous on the city’s improvisational music scene, playing in bands and ad hoc groupings with so many essential players that any list that could fit in this preview would be ridiculously incomplete. He was also a tireless touring musician who represented […]
Tag: Dave Rempis
Posted inMusic
Dave Rempis and Avreeayl Ra’s saxophone-drums duo comes in from the COVID cold
Bennu, the first duo recording by saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Avreeayl Ra, takes its name from an avian Egyptian divinity that created itself and also helped bring the world into being. It’s a fitting title for a completely improvised performance, especially one that ended the longest stretch without a gig that either had endured […]
Posted inMusic
Cosmic Country star Andrew Sa drops a high lonesome covers collection
Cosmic Country star Andrew Sa drops a high lonesome covers collection, Dave Rempis releases a double album of live performances that COVID couldn’t stop, and more.
Posted inMusic
Improvising trio Kuzu combines fire with finesse on a new LP
Kuzu formed in 2017, when electric guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon invited saxophonist Dave Rempis to join their duo onstage at Elastic Arts. The set went so well that they recorded an album the next day. Anyone who knew what that record’s title, Hiljaisuus, means in Finnish probably just thought the trio were […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
The pandemic pushed indoor music into the parks
Saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Tyler Damon played regular concerts in Margate Park this past summer and fall.
Posted inMusic
Elastic Arts ramps up its bookings and launches a transatlantic collaboration
Elastic Arts ramps up its programming, CIVL opens grant applications for its SAVE Emergency Relief Fund, and more.
Posted inMusic
Finding ways to play through the pandemic
Chicago improvisers Tim Daisy and Matt Piet have responded to the challenges of COVID by learning new ways to record alone.
Posted inMusic
Catalytic Sound launches a streaming service to support improvising musicians
Catalytic Sound launches a streaming service to support improvising musicians, rapper-producer Rashid Hadee collaborates with the Primeridian, and more
Posted inMusic
Why do indie musicians put up with penny payouts?
Streaming your favorite artists’ music is the least helpful way to support them. But they can’t abandon those platforms, because we won’t.
Posted inMusic
This Friday’s ‘Bandcamp day’ benefits more than the artists
Many musicians and labels will donate the day’s Bandcamp money to support the fight for Black lives.
Posted inMusic
Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis releases a second record with his all-star quintet
When you want to put together an improvising ensemble whose interactions will be unpredictable as well as satisfying, it helps to recruit someone who has your back and someone else who isn’t afraid to push the music somewhere you didn’t think it would go. For one night in December 2018, Chicago alto, tenor, and baritone […]
Posted inMusic
Three restless musicians—Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, and Paul Lytton—push one another to new horizons
Update: The Nate Wooley/Ken Vandermark/Paul Lytton trio have canceled their tour. This show will proceed with Kuzu and a duo of Vandermark and Lytton. Local clarinet and saxophone player Ken Vandermark, Brooklyn-based trumpeter Nate Wooley, and English percussionist Paul Lytton played their only handful of gigs as a trio in 2011, but their collective history […]
Posted inMusic
The transnational Rempis/Lopez/Packard trio converges in Chicago
The seven tracks on the Rempis/Lopez/Packard trio’s superb debut CD, The Early Bird Gets (Aerophonic), are named after prehistoric avian animals. Anytime a jazz band invokes birds, the ur-Bird—Charlie Parker—inevitably comes to mind. And while no one’s going to mistake the trio’s music for bebop, it does swing more than you’d expect given the backgrounds […]
Posted inMusic
The Reader’s guide to the 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival
This year’s lineup details a sprawling cross section of the genre, including world-changing explorers the Art Ensemble of Chicago, trad band the Fat Babies, venerable guitarist George Freeman, and restless experimenter Rob Mazurek.
Posted inMusic
Saxophonist Dave Rempis builds a band with the stamina for deep dives
The lively quartet Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis brings to the festival finds the meditative heart of free improvisation.