Finally emerging from winter here in Chicago, which is always pleasant! After a busy period in town, working on several different projects including a recording with the Rempis Percussion Quartet in January, and a series of gigs with The Engines in February and March, I just returned yesterday from a few weeks in Europe on two different tours. The first was a quartet featuring myself and Tim Daisy on drums, along with Polish clarinetist Waclaw Zimpel, and Ukrainian bassist Mark Tokar. I’d met both of these guys during tours in Poland over the last several years, and we all play together in Ken Vandermark’s Resonance Project which last met for two weeks of work back in late October.
Our quartet project first met in April of 2008 when I was in Krakow for a gig with The Rempis Percussion Quartet. Mark and I were added as special guests on a duo record that Waclaw and Tim made for the MultiKulti label, which came out as “Four Walls” in 2009. We subsequently convened for a short tour in February of 2009, and decided to do it again this year, with gigs in Krakow, Warsaw, Poznan, and Gdansk. The music grew quite a bit, which was a pleasure. Waclaw is an incredibly talented young clarinetist who plays Bb and bass clarinets, and tarogato. His playing grows by leaps and bounds every time we work together. And Mark is the same – a musician who has no fear to put himself out there, and take risks. A real wellspring of ideas, which is great since the worst thing to deal with onstage is an improviser with a tentative approach.
You can check out some live clips on youtube from our concert at Powieksczenie in Warsaw here.
From our last concert in Gdansk, Tim and I headed out to the airport at 3:45 am, after about an hour of sleep, for a flight to Amsterdam.
There we met up with Jeb Bishop and Nate McBride to form The Engines, and started our tour with that group the same afternoon in Zaandam, a suburb of Amsterdam. The great trumpet player Eric Boeren was nice enough to organize a concert for us on his series there, which started us off in a good way for the tour.
Eric and his wife Elizabeth at home in Zaandam
We continued from there to Enschede, a university town in the eastern Netherlands for a fine concert with a heavily student-based audience, and a fun after-hours hang at the Belgian beer bar on campus, which has apparently led to trouble for some other musician friends over the years, Mr. McBride included!
We mostly escaped the trouble though, and managed to make it to Paris for a needed night off (my first in a week) the next day. Here we spent time with Nate’s friend Nicola, having a great dinner at Brasserie Flo, one of the oldest Brasseries in Paris. We continued with some cognac and round after round of speed chess at Nicola’s apartment until the wee hours.
Speed Chess at Nicola's apartment
Wednesday the 24th was my birthday, and we celebrated with a concert in Brest, at the furthest western tip of France. We also met up with our good friends from Mike Reed’s People Places and Things – Mike, Greg Ward, Tim Haldeman, and Jason Roebke. Although they’d just arrived from Chicago, they played a killer set, setting a high bar for us!
After heading back to Paris for another night off (no complaints!!) and a lengthy dinner at A la Biche Au Bois with both bands, and our old friend Danielle Oosterop from Amsterdam, we continued to Poitiers for a somewhat lightly attended but really enthusiastic show at Carré Bleu, and on to Nantes for another packed double bill with People Places and Things. Since I hadn’t played in France in several years, I really wasn’t sure what to expect overall, but had an incredible time. All of the presenters – Christophe in Brest, Matthieu in Poitiers, and Frédéric in Nantes, were great guys who really understand the music and work hard to present it. They were all warm, and down-to-earth, and ran their clubs in a very friendly way – including some home cooked meals where all of the staff and musicians sat down together before the show. Really pleasant, and a great way to create a nice feeling for everyone with the show.
The Engines in Poitiers - by Pascal Leroy
From Nantes, after very little sleep and a time-change that night, we headed up to Belgium for our first gig with this band in Hasselt at Belgie. This is definitely one of my favorite places to play in Europe, with great audiences, and old friends at the helm – Koen and Christel. I’ve known them since they first brought the Vandermark Five to Belgium in 2002, and have played there about 4 times since. Incredible people with energy and vision who welcome us into their home every time we have a night off, and who do an incredible job organizing concerts. As usual, Christel turned on her charm to sell about 500 euros worth of cd’s for us as well!!
Calatrava's train station in Liege, on the way to Eindhoven
Our last gig as a quartet found us in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on a Monday night for a decent sized, and again enthusiastic, crowd. From there, we had a short trip up to Amsterdam for some mixed groupings with Dutch musicians at Zaal 100 on our last night, including Eric Boeren on trumpet, Jasper Stadhouders on guitar, Wilbert De Joode on bass, and the great Sean Bergin on saxophone, ukelele, and vocals! A great way to finish the tour – the crowd in the small space was really intimate and enthusiastic. The whole vibe at Zaal is very similar to some rooms in Chicago in terms of the knowledgeable audience, and relaxed informal atmosphere.
Onstage with Sean Bergin at Zaal 100
Overall, this was an extremely rewarding trip. At times over the last year our approach with this quartet felt like it wasn’t really working right, and we spent our time in Chicago over the last several months rehearsing, playing weekly gigs at Elastic, and then doing this tour, working on a totally new approach. Rather than playing discreet tunes and arrangements, as we’d done previously, we left things more open, working with a large book of thematic material that anyone could introduce at any time. The arrangements were left open so that we could try to find new ways to juggle the balance between improvising and composition, and I think the approach has really given new life and interest to the band.
