The end of the year is a time for traditions that affirm social and spiritual priorities, and one of Chicago’s most enduring annual rituals comes from its music community. Since 1990, local percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang have convened at Links Hall to perform a concert that celebrates the season but doesn’t align with […]
Tag: Tyler Damon
Posted inMusic
Guitarist Eli Winter taps into Chicago’s musical resources
People pick their college for a lot of reasons beyond education. In Eli Winter’s case, one of the factors that persuaded him to choose the University of Chicago was the chance to engage with the city’s music scene. While growing up in Houston, Texas, the guitarist was particularly drawn to the way Chicago musicians from […]
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Ne-Hi alum Mikey Wells drops a mellow, summery new album with Flamingo Rodeo
Chicago postpunks Ne-Hi split in May 2019, and since then guitarist-singer Mikey Wells has expanded his palette of delightful pop hooks in two standout projects: Spun Out, which is indie dance oriented, and Flamingo Rodeo, which plays choogle rock a la 1970s AM radio. On Flamingo Rodeo’s new album, Pontoon (due this month on Shuga […]
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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.
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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
Crazy Doberman take us on unwieldy free-improvised journeys with Two Tales of Lost Witness Marks
Crazy Doberman are an Indiana free-improvisation and jazz collective created in 2016 as an offshoot of the group Doberman, started three years before. Core members, including Tim Gick and Doberman cofounder Drew Davis, appear on many recordings, but Crazy Doberman’s lineup is loose—it varies on each of the band’s 40-plus albums and has featured dozens […]
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Tashi Dorji and Tyler Damon’s marvelous improvised concert at the May Chapel rings out again
Has it really been just two months since the Illinois shelter-in-place order went into effect? Sometimes live music seems like a fading memory. But when the original experience is especially vivid, it’s not hard for a record like To Catch a Bird in a Net of Wind to bring it all back. The album captures […]
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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 […]
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Dave Rempis teams up with Tashi Dorji and Tyler Damon in Kuzu, a new improvising trio
Dave Rempis is an indefatigable concert organizer and bandleader. While his activities are essential to Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene, they aren’t entirely altruistic; they create multiple opportunities for him to play his alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Since he formed Triage with drummer Tim Daisy and bassist Gordon Lewis (later replaced by Jason […]
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Punishing improvising duo Tashi Dorji & Tyler Damon traffics in pure sound
Over the last few years, guitarist Tashi Dorji (from Asheville, North Carolina) and drummer Tyler Damon (from Bloomington, Indiana) have forged an increasingly solid bond. They create harrowing improvisational duets that snarl and swagger like the most vicious storms, ebbing and flowing with passages of mayhem and temporary calm. After years of developing an appealingly […]
Posted inBlogs
Tashi Dorji and Tyler Damon play Chicago behind the year’s most exciting improvised album
Guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon both came to free improv through punk, and their unpredictable, energetic music still bears its mark.