It’s been awhile since I last updated this page, as the summer season is when my day job as one of the organizers of the Pitchfork Music Festival really gets crazy. I actually haven’t been able to touch my horn for the last three weeks, but after a seemingly succesful conclusion to Pitchfork last weekend, I’ve got both the tenor and alto up and running as I prepare for an upcoming Vandermark Five tour including a concert at the Newport Jazz Festival. Who would’ve thunk it…
June was full of some great concerts, with an intensive period of work featuring old friends Magnus Broo (trumpet) and Haavard Wiik (piano) as special guests with the Vandermark Five at the Green Mill in Chicago. Both of them absolutely killed, with the MVP award going to Magnus for quoting just about every standard under the sun in his Don Cherry meets Louis Armstrong solos. A personal favorite was, or course, “My Kind of Town” or whatever the hell it’s called, during the third set on Saturday.
Also got a chance to work with my quartet featuring Jaimie Branch on trumpet, with the telepathic rhythm section of Steve Hunt and Kent Kessler. Hoping to record this group sometime in the next six months.
June ended with a record release party for the Rempis Percussion Quartet at the Hideout, with the Chicago debut of the band’s new lineup, now featuring Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass. It was alot of fun to return home after the tour we did in May and early June, and crank it up for the hometown crowd. The response was quite enthusiastic. Ingebrigt, Frank, and I then popped up to Milwaukee for a trio gig as the Outskirts the next night at the Sugar Maple. Pretty interesting how different the subtraction of one person can make for the music…..
And then, on to Pitchfork. While it would be great to just exist as a musician, that’s not very easy in this day and age. But I’ve been very lucky to pick up a gig organizing a rock festival for the last five years. I always get a kick out of watching some snotty flash-in-the-pan 22-year old band who’ll be washed up in six months, while I see the entire improvised music scene of Chicago running the show behind the scenes. Josh Berman at artist checkin, Jason Adasiewicz hauling ice, building stage barricades, and spreading mulch, Anton Hatwich, Jeff Kimmel, Jaimie Branch and many more in the beer tents, Fred Lonberg-Holm onstage as a tech, and Mike Reed schmoozing an agent from William Morris before moving onto a chat with the alderman. The irony of the situation isn’t lost on any of those folks, many of whom will be around, still playing music, long after the 22-year olds have hung up their guitars, tight tshirts, and white belts, and taken a job at an ad agency.
Anyways, hope to see you some of you on tour in August with the V5!!
