Dimensional Stardust is a splendid sonic antidote for the spirit-damping insults of a year that can’t end soon enough—growth and transcendence are programmed into the album’s DNA. The Exploding Star Orchestra’s leader, multi-instrumentalist Rob Mazurek, started out playing idiomatically correct hard bop in Chicago’s jazz bars in the 1980s. These days he lives in Marfa, […]
Tag: Exploding Star Orchestra
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Damon Locks’s greatest moment in Chicago music history
Black Monument Ensemble founder Damon Locks still feels the ripples from Soul Train 50 years after its Chicago premiere.
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The Chicago Underground Quartet bottle their lightning again
For 19 years, the Chicago Underground Quartet’s first album was their only album—but now longtime collaborators Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker, and Chad Taylor have recaptured the group’s freewheeling jazz spirit.
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Rob Mazurek refracts melody and groove through cosmic complexity
Trumpeter and polymath Rob Mazurek returns to his old hometown with the adventurous quartet Desert Encrypts Vol. 1.
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Rob Mazurek presents the latest iteration of his Exploding Star Orchestra tonight
The prolific Chicago cornetist and composer gives the Chicago debut of two new suites.
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In Rotation: Jeanine O’Toole of Bare Mutants on how to commemorate Jerry Garcia’s deathiversary
Current musical obsessions of Bare Mutants vocalist Jeanine O’Toole, and Eternals front man Damon Locks
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This week on the B Side
The Reader’s Lollapalooza Survival Guide, plus Paul McCartney, Sade, Iceage, and plenty more non-Lolla stuff too
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Chicago, Brazil
Sao Paulo percussionist Mauricio Takara (Hurtmold, Sao Paulo Underground) leads a group of his own this Wednesday at Heaven Gallery.
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The List: January 7-13, 2009
Critics’ Choices and other notable concerts: Lady Gaga, Pierre Boulez with the CSO, Rob Mazurek, Anvil, Das Boton, and more