In January 2021, I profiled local percussionist Tim Daisy by detailing his creative response to the limitations imposed by COVID-19. At the time, he had just issued a virtual collaboration with electronic musician Ikue Mori on his own label, Relay Recordings. While Daisy has continued to exploit the potentialities of home recording and technologically facilitated […]
Tag: Mars Williams
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.
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Bandcamp Friday returns for 2021
You can jump-start your Bandcamp Friday browsing with nearly 100 newly Reader-recommended releases.
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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.
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Chicago squares off against New York City on the fourth volume of Mars Williams’s Ayler Xmas project
Among the myriad injuries inflicted upon Americans by COVID-19 (though admittedly one of the mildest) is the impossibility of attending your favorite holiday concert. For the past dozen years, Chicago-based saxophonist Mars Williams has hosted a unique variation on that seasonal tradition. Each December he convenes Witches & Devils, his combo devoted to the music […]
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Mars Williams brings his Albert Ayler Xmas across Europe and back home to Chicago
This year’s free-jazz holiday tour includes two shows at the Hungry Brain with his band Witches & Devils and special guests.
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Drummer Tim Daisy hits a hot streak with his record label
Drummer Tim Daisy hits a hot streak with his record label, indie rockers Jupiter Styles celebrate a star-studded sophomore album, and more.
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Ken Vandermark convenes a fresh group of old and new collaborators
This autumn marks 30 years since Ken Vandermark moved to Chicago. The reedist plays tenor and baritone saxophones as well as B-flat and bass clarinets, and his staggering output—he’s put out six releases this year alone, one of them a five-disc set—can be divided and analyzed according to any number of metrics, including where he […]
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Extraordinary Popular Delusions play free jazz two centuries deep
The members of Extraordinary Popular Delusions bring vast and varied experience to this underappreciated ensemble’s regular weekly shows—which follow no rules but their own.
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One of the longest-running freely improvising ensembles on earth plays this (and nearly every) Monday in Roscoe Village
For improvisers, familiarity is a double-edged sword; if musicians get too comfortable with each other, inspiration can turn into habit. But there’s nothing quite so thrilling as the near-telepathic rapport of a group whose players know each other’s strengths and try to push each other to greater heights. The members of Extraordinary Popular Delusions have […]
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Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis builds an intentional community in jazz
Dave Rempis organizes concerts, mentors young musicians, and connects players from across the States and abroad—modeling the commitment and generosity that keep the jazz scene viable.
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Chicago free-jazz heavy Mars Williams celebrates his annual marriage of holiday themes and Albert Ayler tunes
After seven years of interpolating holiday favorites and classic material by free-jazz icon Albert Ayler—including the saxophonist’s screaming gospel fervor—in his annual December concert in Chicago, reedist Mars Williams is expanding the concept in 2017. To support Mars Williams Presents: An Ayler Xmas (Soul What), a raucous new release recorded last year at the Hungry […]
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Trumpeter Jaimie Branch finally spreads her wings
More than 12 years after her blazing debut on the Chicago jazz scene, trumpeter Jaimie Branch releases Fly or Die, her first album as a bandleader.
Posted inBlogs
Chicago Reed Quartet’s posthumous debut reminds us of what we’re missing
Ensemble member Dave Rempis releases Western Automatic, recorded last year at the Hungry Brain.
Posted inBlogs
Remembering Hal Russell: Ken Vandermark, Michael Shannon, and others pay tribute
The idiosyncratic and influential bandleader gets feted in Millennium Park next week.