Post No Bills
Friday, November 6, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:04 PM
I haven’t had time to fully digest it, but
Shape of the Shape, the new second album by British trio
Starless & Bible Black, sure seems like a winner. And since the band is playing
Saturday night at the Empty Bottle as part of a showcase presented by local label
Locust Music, I don’t think I should wait to post about the band till after I’ve listened to the new album as thoroughly as I think I ought to. I remember liking the group’s self-titled 2006 debut, also on Locust, but it certainly didn’t impress me right out of the gate like
Shape of the Shape did. Now I feel stupid for not giving the debut more of my attention when it came out.
Continue reading »
Tags: Starless & Bible Black, Locust Music, Empty Bottle, O.W.L., Stephen Titra, Shape of the Shape, Mountain Bus, Rhythm's Children, Murray Allen, Dawson Prater, Brown Elephant, British folk, folk-rock, Tim Buckley, Dave Friedman, Al Keeler, Alessandro Bosetti, Paul Metzger
Permalink
|
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:43 PM
New York pianist
Matthew Shipp, who plays solo
tonight at Elastic as part of the
Umbrella Music Festival, didn’t release his first solo recording,
One (Thirsty Ear), until 2006, 18 years into his career. That record signaled a shift in his music. Though he hadn’t stopped working with his most famous collaborator, titanic tenor saxophonist
David S. Ware, he’d been spending an increasing amount of time experimenting with electronic musicians and hip-hop artists (
DJ Spooky,
Anti-Pop Consortium,
Spring Heel Jack)—but
One signalled the start of a shift back toward acoustic sounds. One thing that Shipp never altered, though, was the rigor of his compositions and improvisations, regardless of context.
Continue reading »
Tags: Matthew Shipp, Umbrella Music Festival, Elastic, DJ Spooky, Anti-Pop Consortium, Spring Heel Jack, David S. Ware, 4D, Thirsty Ear Records, Un Piano, Rogue Art Records
Permalink
|
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 2:54 PM
In this week’s paper I write about a couple of the international artists performing at the Chicago Cultural Center tonight as part of “European Jazz Meets Chicago,” the opening celebration of this year’s
Umbrella Music Festival. But don’t take my focus on
Liudas Mockunas and
Martin Brandlmayr to mean the other musicians on the bill aren’t worthy. In fact, the two visiting pianists tonight would merit special attention any day of the year. (So would the other two guests, Swiss reedist
Hans Koch and Swedish guitarist
David Stackenas.)
Continue reading »
Tags: Umbrella Music Festival, Liudas Mockunas, Martin Brandlmayr, David Stackenas, Hans Kock, European Jazz Meets Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, jazz, improvised music, Achim Kaufmann, Wilbert de Joode, Frank Gratkowski, Wim Janssen, Guus Janssen, Anton Hatwich, Lennie Tristano, Out of Frame, Palae, Leo Records, GeestGronden Records, Misha Mengelberg
Permalink
|
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 1:22 PM
If you know the name
Tobin Summerfield, that’s likely due to the sprawling large-band works the local guitarist and bassist has made in the past few years under the name
Never Enough Hope—he assembles upwards of 20 musicians from the jazz and rock worlds to bring to life his minimalist epics. But on
Thursday night at the Hideout Summerfield celebrates the digital release of a much more modest piece of work, a solo outing called
Working Up to Full Reflection (Contraphonic).
Continue reading »
Tags: Tobin Summerfield, Never Enough Hope, Contraphonic, Hideout, Working Up to Full Reflection
Permalink
|
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Continue reading »
Tags: Hans Koch, Umbrella Music Festival, Bond Chapel, Chicago Cultural Center, Martin Schutz, Fredy Studer, Peter Liechti, Intakt Records, Drag City Records, Hardcore Chambermusic—A Club for 30 Days, Kick That Habit, Voice Crack, Signer’s Suitcase: On the Road With Roman Signer
Permalink
|
Monday, November 2, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 11:14 AM
A bunch of high-profile cameos festoon the U.S. debut album by the Israeli production crew
Soulico—including Ghostface, Rye Rye, Lyrics Born, and Del the Funky Homosapien—but frankly, they really aren’t needed. The music on
Exotic on the Speaker (JDub) traffics in club-oriented hip-hop bangers, with the Tel Aviv foursome liberally drawing upon samples of Middle Eastern sounds, you know, for that regional flavor. The various singers and MCs who have a connection to the Middle East—
Balkan Beat Box front man Tomer Yosef, Oren Barzilay, and Axum, who’s performing with the group
tonight in their cover-free Chicago debut at the Empty Bottle—pack the most punch, fitting in easily with Soulico’s Mediterranean party vibe.
Continue reading »
Tags: Soulico, JDub Records, Exotic on the Speaker, Empty Bottle, hip-hop, Israel, Middle East, Axum, MC Zulu, David Last, Musically Massive, Staubgold Records, Poirier
Permalink
|
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Chicago’s invaluable
Numero Group label has always complemented its superb collections with beautiful packaging—thorough, fascinating liner notes, rare archival photographs, lovely slipcases. In fact, over the imprint’s history it seems as though the physical presentation of each release has become more important and more elaborate, which makes sense considering how easy it is for most folks to simply illegally download something for free. For the label’s next knockout release,
Light: On the Southside, the music is actually a complement to the art: a stunning 12-by-12, 132-page hardbound book featuring gorgeous black-and-white photographs shot by
Michael L. Abramson at a handful of south-side blues clubs and lounges between 1975 and 1977.
Continue reading »
Tags: Numero Group, Michael L. Abramson, Rick Kogan, Chicago, blues, soul, Pepper's Hideout, Perv's Lounge, High Chaparral, Little Mack Simmons, Bobby Rush, Artie "Blues Boy" White, Detroit Jr., Chicago Cultural Center, Intelligentsia Coffee, 24-Carat Black
Permalink
|
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Cellist
Hildur Gudnadottir has been working with the Icelandic band Mum since the late 90s, both live and on record—and she’ll be performing with them
tonight at the Logan Square Auditorium—but she’s never been a full-fledged member. Which is probably for the best, because she’s got so much else going on.
Continue reading »
Tags: Hildur Gudnadottir, Angel, Mum, Logan Square Auditorium, Iceland, Stilluppsteypa, B.J. Nilsen, Ilpo Vaisanen, Pan Sonic, Dirk Dresselhaus, Schneider TM, Storsveit Nix Noltes, Strings of Consciousness, Without Sinking, Skulli Sverrisson, Johan Johansson
Permalink
|
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Chicago cellist
Fred Lonberg-Holm is a busy guy, playing in countless ensembles (Frame Quartet, Vandermark 5, the Horse’s Ha, Fast Citizens, and his own Valentine Trio, among many others) and apparently pretty open to improvising with any player with a good idea or two in his head. He’s anything but a careerist—but he’s found his own low-key ways to make more of his music available over the years.
Continue reading »
Tags: Fred Lonberg-Holm, Chicago, improvisation, Flying Aspidistra, Kuro Neko, Lightbox Orchestra, Hideout, Cabin Cemetery Forest, cello
Permalink
|
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Posted
by Peter Margasak
on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Is it just me, or is the killer new-music group and Chicago-New York presenting force
International Contemporary Ensemble responsible for an inordinately large proportion of the exciting new music shows that happen in the city? A few weeks ago I saw violinist
David Bowlin give a knockout performance of rarely performed work by Luigi Nono, and I’m super pumped about a program of works by the brilliant Finnish composer
Kaija Saariaho happening next month at the MCA.
From the very start one of the key forces behind the organization has been the remarkable flutist Claire Chase, who plays a record release party at the Velvet Lounge tonight.
Continue reading »
Tags: Claire Chase, contemporary classical music, International Contemporary Ensemble, ICE, Aliento, Luigi Nono, David Bowlin, Kaija Saariaho, Nicole Mitchell, Nathan Davis, Jason Eckardt, Dai Fujikura, Edgar Guzman, Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Paganini, Marcelo Toledo, New Focus
Permalink
|
