Resonance Festival

poster, design by Marek Wajda

Wed March 2nd :: RESONANCE FESTIVAL

Inner Ear (Trzaska / Swell / Holmlander / Daisy)

Reed Trio (Vandermark / Trzaska / Zimpel)

ad hoc unit @ The Hideout

1354W Wabansia Ave, Chicago

start:  10pm

Thu March 3rd :: RESONANCE FESTIVAL

Tim Daisy / Ken Vandermark Duo

Mikołaj Trzaska / Michael Zerang / Devin Hoff Trio

ad hoc unit @ Elastic

2830N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago

start:  10pm

Fri March 4th :: RESONANCE FESTIVAL

FOUR (Rempis / Zimpel / Hoff / Daisy)

Brass Trio (Broo / Holmlander / Swell)

ad hoc unit @ The Sugar Maple

441 E. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53224

start: 9pm

Sat March 5th :: RESONANCE FESTIVAL

RESONANCE ENSEMBLE @ The Sugar Maple

441 E. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53224

start: 3pm

Sun March 6th :: RESONANCE FESTIVAL

RESONANCE ENSEMBLE @ The Chicago Cultural Center

78 E Washington Street
Chicago, IL, 60602

start: 2pm

Resonance Ensemble in Gdańsk, Poland, October 31, 2009

Resonance Ensemble "Kafka In Flight"

Resonance Ensemble "Kafka In Flight"

NotTwo Records 2011, MW 860-2.

street date: March 2, 2011

tracklist:
1. The Pier (for Yutaka Takanashi)
2. Rope (for Don Ellis)
3. Coal Marker (for Chris Marker)


All compositions by Ken Vandermark (Twenty First Mobile Music/ASCAP).
Recorded in concert at the Philharmonic Hall, Gdańsk, Poland, on October 31, 2009.
Mixed by Bob Weston and Ken Vandermark at Chicago Mastering Service.

The Resonance Ensemble's music has advanced Vandermark's composing methods for large groups, work that started with the early music of Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, and then continued with his Territory Bands. Much of the new material combines his interest in "suite forms" (perhaps most influenced by Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus) and a collaging approach to improvising structures that he began with the Territory Band. The project provided Vandermark with the first opportunity in his career to do nothing but compose for a week. In September of 2009, he began a new approach to writing for the project, a series of "modular pieces", which can be reassembled for each performance, giving added spontaneity to both the improvising and the compositional structure. The results of these new compositional strategies, coupled with a 10 day European tour, has resulted in the newest album by the band, "Kafka In Flight," which was recorded live in Gdańsk, Poland, and is also part of the Not Two catalog.

Magnus Broo

Magnus Broo, photo by Nikita

Magnus Broo
Born in 1965 in Huskvarna, Sweden, started to play trumpet at the age of 9. Got a bachelor of music degree in jazz performance at University of North Texas in 1990. Moved to Stockholm in 1990. Have played as a freelance trumpet player since then.

bands he plays in now:
Atomic
IPA
Stockholm Jazz Orchestra
Magnus Broo Quartet
Angles
Plattform 1

Resonance Project

http://www.myspace.com/magnusbroo

4 Corners [Magnus Broo / Ken Vandermark / Adam Lane / Paal Nilssen-Love], Alfama (for Georges Braque)

Tim Daisy

Tim Daisy, photo by Nikita

Tim Daisy - percussion / composition
Tim has been an active member of Chicago’s creative music scene since moving there in 1997. He has performed, composed, recorded, and toured with many of the city’s celebrated musicians and ensembles. Along with performing percussion duties in internationally acclaimed bands including the Vandermark 5, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, and The Engines, Tim maintains an active composing schedule, writing for his own groups as well as contributing to a number of collaborative ensembles including chamber groups, jazz ensembles, dance, and film.
Tim has had the fortunate experience to perform and/or record with many great improvisers both from the United States and around the world, including: Fred Anderson, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee, Dave Rempis, Xavier Charles, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeff Parker, Waclaw Zimpel, Mikolaj Trzaska, Steve Swell, Magnus Broo, Jeb Bishop, Erik Friedlander, Havard Wiik, Jim Baker, Michael Zerang, Per-Ake Homlander, Nate McBride and James Falzone.
His festival performances include: Suoni Per Il Poplo in Montreal QC, North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, The Newport Jazz Festival, Le Mans Jazz Festival in Le Mans, France, Banlieue Bleue Festival in Paris, the Chicago Jazz Festival, Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, Festival Jazz a Mulhouse in Mulhouse, France, Umbrella Music Festival in Chicago, Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade, Serbia, Lviv Jazz Festival in Lviv, Ukraine, Debrecen Jazz Days in Debrecen, Hungary, Wels Jazz Festival in Wels, Austria, Phrenology Fest in Chicago, the Elastic Festival of Improvised music in Chicago, and the Third Ward Jazz Festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Groups as a leader:
Vox Arcana : Tim Daisy: percussion/marimba, James Falzone: clarinet, Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello
New Fracture Quartet : Tim Daisy: drums, Dave Miller: guitar, Jake Vinsel: bass, Nate Wooley: trumpet

As a sideman / collaborator:
Rempis Percussion Quartet
The Vandermark 5
Frame Quartet
KLANG
The Engines
Rempis / Daisy duo
Kyle Bruckmann’s WRACK
Resonance Ensemble
Vandermark / Daisy Duo
ARRIVE
Marc Riordan Trio

http://timdaisy.wordpress.com/about/

Vox Arcana [Tim Daisy / Fred Lonberg-Holm / James Falzone], Piece #1

Devin Hoff

Devin Hoff

Devin Hoff is a musician and songwriter born in Colorado whose main instruments are double bass and bass guitar. He has worked in many musical contexts and with a wide array of jazz, free jazz, avant-garde rock, and folk musicians, including Nels Cline, Vijay Iyer, Xiu Xiu, Carla Bozulich, Ben Goldberg, Howard Wiley, and Good for Cows. His first regular band as a composer/leader was Redressers (with Carla Kihlstedt, Marika Hughes and Ches Smith). He wrote and recorded an album of solo double bass music, Solo Bass (2009), and continues to perform in that medium. He currently lives in Chicago, IL.

Also performed and/or recorded with:

Vijay Iyer, Bobby Bradford, Howard Wiley, Lavay Smith, Odessa Chen, Derrek Phillips, Arnoldo Garcia, Ron Miles, Amiri Baraka, Tony Malaby, Hugh Ragin, Andrea Parkins, John Dieterich, and many others...

from: wikipedia.org

Per-Åke Holmlander

Per-Åke Holmlander, photo by Nikita

Per-Åke Holmlander born in 1957 in Skelleftea in the very north of Sweden. Holmlander received his diploma in classical tuba in 1983 at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm with Michael Lind as a teacher. Holmlander has always worked simultaneously with improvisation, jazz and rock music as well as classical and contemporary music.

As an improviser Holmlander has worked with - Eje Thelin, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lovens, Folke Rabe, Phil Minton, Sten Sandell, Sven-Åke Johansson,  Mats Persson, Gunter Christmann, Kjell Westling, Keith Rowe, Position Alpha, Jan Allan, Mats Gustafsson & NU-Ensemblen, Jon Vanderlander Trio, DJustable, The Swedish Radio Jazz Group, Ken Vandermark - Territory Band, The Frontroom Ensemble & London Jazz Composers´Orchestra, among others. Holmlander works a lot with theatre music, sometimes he plays solo and he regularly works with Barry Guy New Orchestra, Fredrik Ljungkvist and his Yun Kan 5 & Yun Kan 10, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and recently with Torden Kvartetten, Ken Vandermark - Resonance  Ensemble, Partiominut, Swedish azz, Inner Ear & Peter Danemo - LED. Per-Åke has participated in more than 60 records and 1800 theatrical performances. He has given concerts in 31 countries and released two solo-CD:s in Sweden. Per-Åke Holmlander has recently made a Solo concert tour in Sweden and he is since December 2008 a member of the government run - Musikalliansen.

- on his way he has also run into different artists such as; Stina Nordenstam, Putte Wickman, Thomas Di Leva, Elisabeth Söderström & Nils Landgren -

Swedish Azz [Mats Gustafsson / Per-Ake Holmlander / Kjell Nordeson / dieb 13 / Eric Carlsson], Jazz På Svenska

Dave Rempis

Dave Rempis, photo by Nikita

Dave Rempis was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts on March 24th, 1975. He began his musical studies at the age of 8, inspired by a family friend who played clarinet in local Greek bands, and by Zoot, of the Muppets Band, to pick up saxophone. During high school he performed in his town, district, and all-state bands and wind ensembles, as well as in a jazz combo at a local music school.
In 1993, Rempis began a degree in classical saxophone at Northwestern University with Frederick Hemke. Finding this environment stifling, Rempis quickly ditched the music degree to pursue studies in anthropology and ethnomusicology. As part of these studies, he spent a year at the International Centre for African Music and Dance at the University of Ghana, Legon, studying African music and ethnomusicology. He also continued to perform with many different types of groups, ranging from highlife and reggae bands while in Ghana, to jazz, free jazz, funk, and contemporary music ensembles at home. He graduated from Northwestern in 1997.
Upon graduating, Rempis decided to focus on performing, and in March of 1998 was asked to replace saxophonist Mars Williams in the well-known Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe playing clubs, concert halls, and festivals on both continents.
During his tenure with The Vandermark Five, Rempis also began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he is currently known. These include The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, The Rempis/Rosaly Duo, The Outskirts, Ballister, The Rempis/Daisy Duo, Bishop/Rempis/Kessler/Zerang, and Wheelhouse. Past working groups include Triage, and the Dave Rempis Quartet. Many of these groups have been documented on the Okkadisk, 482 Music, Not Two, Solitaire, and Utech record labels. Rempis also performs and tours with Ken Vandermark's Territory Band and Resonance Project, and The Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten Quintet. Past collaborations have included performances with Paul Lytton, Axel Dörner, Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Steve Swell, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson, Kevin Drumm, Paal Nilsson-Love, Tony Buck, and Joe Morris. Rempis has been named twice in the annual Downbeat Critics's Poll as a rising star in both the alto and baritone saxophone categories.
Aside from performing, Rempis is also active as a presenter. From 2002 - 2005, he curated a weekly Thursday-night concert series in conjunction with the Elastic Arts Foundation at their "3030" performance space in Humboldt Park. In the spring of 2006, he moved the series to EAF's new Logan Square space, Elastic, where it continues today. The series has featured over 300 concerts by some of the best improvisers from around the world, while maintaining a focus on up-and-coming local musicians. In late 2005, Rempis helped form the presenters' collective Umbrella Music, working with musicians and presenters from around Chicago to provide better playing opportunities for creative and improvising musicians. As part of this group, he helps to organize the annual Umbrella Music Festival, and was the lead organizer of the Downtown Sound Gallery concert series at Gallery 37 For the Arts in 2006 and 2007.
Rempis is also one of the main organizers of the indie-rock Pitchfork Music Festival, a 60,000-person event which takes place in Chicago's Union Park every July.

http://daverempis.com/bio.php

Steve Swell

Steve Swell, photo by Nikita

Steve Swell

Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975.  He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker.  He has over 25 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 90 other releases.  He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children.

Steve was nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 by the Jazz Journalists Association, was selected Trombonist of the Year 2008, 2009 and 2010 by the magazine El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award  of the Tides Foundation.  In 2010 The Downbeat Critics Poll selected him for the Trombone category.

http://www.steveswell.com/SteveSwellBio.htm

Mark Tokar

Mark Tokar, photo by Nikita

Mark Tokar graduated from Lviv Polytechnic University. Upon graduation he attended classical guitar classes at S.Lyudkevych Music College. At the same time he starts to play double bass. During 2002-2004 he repeatedly participated in Krakow jazz workshops, directed by M. Parkinson ( USA ). In 2006 by “Gaude Polonia” scholarship program Mark studied at K. Szymanowski Jazz Academy under direction of Professor Jacek Niedzela. The program was granted by the Minister of Culture in Poland. Starting 2006 he periodically gives lessons in jazz schools. During 2005-2006 Mark Tokar works as an art director of Ukrainian-Polish Jazz Bez festival. He organizes series of Metro Jazz philharmonic musical performances in Lviv. As a musician, plays with different bands at numerous festivals in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Austria, France, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Czech Republic. Mark participates in international Ken Vandermark project “Resonance”, as well as Undivided, Five Spot, Four, Varpaj, Yatoku. Along with that he is a leader of international projects Leo'm'art, Mark Tokar's Quintet and Avtokar. Mark Tokar has been performing with Ken Vandermark, Bobby Few, Perry Robinson, Steve Swell, Michael Zerang, Tim Daisy, Dave Rempis, Roberta Piket, Fred Frith (USA), Klaus Kugel, Arkadij Shylkloper (Germany), Petras Vishniauskas (Lithuania), Mirchea Tiberian (Romania), Mazzol, Mikolaj Trzaska, Waclaw Zimpel (Poland), Jurij Jaremczuk (Ukraine), Magnus Broo, Per-Ake Holmlander (Sweden), Mark Sanders (England).

http://marktokar.info/

Mikołaj Trzaska

Mikołaj Trzaska, photo by Nikita

Mikołaj Trzaska
Born on 07.04.1966, Gdańsk (Poland); composer, saxophonist, bass clarinetist.
In 1989 he starts studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Painting Institute in Gdańsk in Włodzimierz Łajming's atelier. At the same time fascinated by jazz from the 60-ties, especially by music of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman he starts to learn by himself how to play alto saxophone. Soon afterwards he joins the group of the bassist Tymon Tymański "Sni Sredstwom Za Uklanianie". This group was a germ of the biggest ferment in Polish jazz of the 80-ties and the 90-ties - Miłość. In 1991 he leaves the Academy and devotes himself to music. 1992-2001 cofounder and saxophonist of Miłość, one of the main pillars of so called yass scene. The group cooperated with among others Lester Bowie and Tomasz Stańko. They recorded five albums together. In 1993 he tries his hand at composing and as a leader, he founds Łoskot which made its debut on the first Gdynia Summer Jazz Days Festival. In April 1994 together with Ryszard Tymański they found duet Masło, known of pure nonsense sense of humour. They performed their favourite rock and jazz standards in various, often strange versions. In October 1994 the first common tour of Miłość and Lester Bowie crowned with recording of the album "Not Two". In 1995 he records his first solo album "Cześć, Cześć, Cześć" for Gowi Records publishing house. In the album he's accompanied by Jowita Cieślikiewicz, Tomasz Hesse and Jacek Olter. In 1996 Mikołaj starts a yearlong cooperation with Świetliki - a group from Cracow, recording an album "Cacy, cacy Flaeishmaschine" with them. Later he decides to cooperate with Marcin Świetlicki in a project which combines poetry with improvisation on saxophone and bass clarinet. In 2000 they record the album "Cierpienie i Wypoczynek".
In July 1997 there was a second tour of Miłość with Lester Bowie resulting in recording of the album "Talkin' about life and death" in the studio of Radio Gdańsk. In 1998 quartet NRD that is Jerzy Mazzol, Ryszard Tymański and Jacek Olter start their few months' activity. The lineup played a few concerts and recorded the album "Sport i Religia". In 1999 project The Users together with Robert Brylewski, Marcin Świetlicki, Ryszard Tymański, Milo Kurtis. and Jacek Olter. Album "Nie Idź Do Pracy" is recorded. In 2000 together with his wife Ola Trzaska he founded a publishing house Kilogram Records, which publishes Mikołaj's albums and impro-free jazz music. In 2001 he starts cooperation with Andrzej Stasiuk, writer and publicist, six years later they publish an album entitled "Kantry". 2001- 2004 he cooperated with an instrumental - composing duet - Marcin and Bartłomiej Oleś. Their first album "Mikro Muzik" is thought to be a very important event in contemporary Polish jazz. Next albums are "La sketch up" and Trzaska's album with participation of Oleś brothers - "Danziger Strassenmusik" - recorded on the streets of Gdańsk. They also recorded an album "Suite For Trio + 4", together with a French trumpeter Jean Luc Cappozzo. In 2003 when he was in Ukraine he created a music - literary project with an outstanding Ukrainian writer and poet Yuri Andrukhowych. The result of their cooperation is the album "Andruchoid". In Autumn 2003 he meets a French guitarist Noël Akchoté with whom he plays concerts and spends one day in the Warsaw Music Academy studio. In May 2003 on the Festival "Blooms Days" in Dublin he plays with Austrian cellist and composer Clementine Gasser, it is the beginning of a long cooperation in duet and other lineups. In September 2003 during his stay in Scandinavia Trzaska starts a permanent cooperation with musicians who form Peter Brötzmann's rytmical section - bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and drummer Peeter Uuskyla. They record albums (2004) "Unforgiven north" and (2006) "Orangeada". In Spring 2004 on the occasion of Polish Year in Germany Trzaska starts cooperation with musicians from Germany: drummer and electronic engineer Paul Wirkus and double bassist Johannes Firsch. They go on two concert tours in Germany. In April 2005 Peter Brotzmann joins the trio Trzaska/Friis/Uuskyla. In this way North Quartet is founded and the album "Malamuth" is recorded. Also in 2005 in trio with Danish musicians Peter Friis Nielsen and Peter Ole Jorgensen. In April 2007 in Copenhagen, the premiere of their common album "Volumen" published by a Danish publishing house Ninth World Music took place. The same year he cooperates with Paul Wirkus recording an album inspired by Andrzej Stasiuk's prose "Nacht". In May 2006 project Shofar with participation of guitarist and composer Raphael Rogiński and drummer Macio Moretti is started. The idea of the project is to find a common denominator for traditional Jewish music and contemporary creative jazz. In 2007 their album "Shofar" is published.
In Autumn 2006 he starts cooperation with Joe McPhee and Jay Rosen - he records the album "Intimate conversations" with them. In 2007 he plays a common concert tour with Trio X, and shortly after that they record material for a common album under a working title "Magic". In October 2007 on the occasion of Gunter Grass' 80th birthday he forms an orchestra consisting of twelve people: Johannes Bauer, Wacław Zimpel, Przemek Dyakowski, Tomasz Ziętek, Kristofer Winckel, Marcin Dymiter, Adam Witkowski, Olo Walicki, Kuba Staruszkiewicz, Michał Goss, Paweł Nowicki - Mikołaj Trzaska Mottlau River Band, the orchestra performs a suite devoted to the writer in St John's church in Gdansk.
In November 2007 he is invited to join an international project of Ken Vandermark "Resonanse", where he cooperates with Tim Daisy, Steve Swelle, Magnus Broo, Yuriy Yaremchuk, Marek Tokar, Dave Rempis, Michael Zerang and Per-Ake Holmlander.
In December 2007 he founds a quartet with American pianist Noah Rosen, Danish drummer Peter Ole Jorgensen and Belgian double bassist Peter Jacquemyn - they record an album as Trzaska/Rosen Quartet and go on a concert tour in Poland and Ukraine. In January 2008 he records an album in trio with Peter Brotzmann and Johannes Bauer. In Spring 2008 drummer from Chicago Tentet - Michael Zerang joins the duet with Clementine Gasser. They go on a concert tour in Poland and record material for a common album with a magic title Nadir & Mahora. In Spring 2008 he implements two musical projects in Vienna together with Clementine Gasser and Bernhard Loibner for Essl Museum and with Joachim Roedelius and Clementine Gasser - Secret Love. On that occasion he is invited to take part in Vienna Improvise Orchestra conducted by saxophonist and violinist Michael Fisher. In June 2008 Mikołaj forms a quartet consisting of bass clarinets called IRCHA and invites Wacław Zimpel, Paweł Szamburski and Michał Górczyński to the group. The group has its debut on the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow. In October 2008 trio Trzaska/Gasser/Zerang goes on an international tour with concerts in Austria, Germany and Poland. At the same time Trzaska meets an Australian double bassist Clayton Thomas with whom he plays concerts in Germany and Poland and records material for an album in club Dragon in Poznań. At the end of October 2008 the artist goes on a concert tour in the USA: he plays a few concerts in New York with Joe McPhee, Dominik Duval and Jay Rosen among others in The Living Theater within the program RUCMA series. Then he plays in New Haven, CT in Firehouse, concert and recording the material for an album. In Philadelphia in International House Philadelphia within a series prized by the critics Ars Nova Workshop. It was a tour promoting the album "Intimate Conversation" published by Not Two record company.
The second part of the tour are Mikołaj Trzaska's performances in Chicago during Umbrella Music Festival "European Jazz Meets Chicago" called by the critics the most important jazz meeting in Chicago. On 5th November in Chicago Cultural Center Trzaska performed together with Chicago jazz-impro stars - bassist Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang. The tour was concluded by a concert in The Hideout club in Chicago on 8th November together with guitarist Evan O'Reilly, bassist Christian Weber and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Moreover he played with Tim Daisy, Elizabeth Harnik and Taylor Ho Bynum. When he comes back from the USA Trzaska implements a project planned a long time ago called Warsong with Raphael Rogiński on the guitar and Tomek Sowiński on drums. In the middle of November 2008 there was a tour of Reed Trio founded by Ken Vandermark accompanied by clarinetist Wacław Zimpel ended with the recording of the material for a CD and LP album. A few days later a British drummer Mark Sanders invites Trzaska to his trio where Peter Friis Nielsen also performs.


Chosen recording history:
Miłość (1992; with Miłość)
Taniec Smoka (1994; with Miłość)
Koncert w Mózgu (1994; with Łoskot)
Not Two (1994; with Miłość and Lester Bowie)
Cześć, Cześć, Cześć (1995)
Asthmatic (1995; with Miłość)
Sport i Religia (1998; with NRD)
Amariuch (1998; with Łoskot)
Talkin' About Life And Death (2000; with Miłość and Bowie)
Cierpienie i wypoczynek (2000; with Marcin Świetlicki)
Śmierdzące Kwiatuszki (2000; with Łoskot)
Ostrza (2001; with Cezary Ostrowski)
Pieszo (2001)
Mikro Musik (2002; with Marcin and Bartłomiej Oleś Brothers)
La Sketch Up (2003; with Oleś Brothers)
Dni Krytyczne (2003; international project )
Danziger Straßenmusik (2004; with Oleś Brothers)
Unforgiven North (2004; with Peter Friis Nielsen and Peeter Uuskyla)
Andruchoid (2005; with Yuri Andrukhowych)
Noc (2005; with Paul Wirkus)
Suite For Trio + 4 (2005; with Oleś Brothers and Jean Luc-Cappozzo)
Malamute (2005; with Peter Brötzmann, Friis Nielsen and Uuskyla)
Orangeada (2006; with Friis Nielsen and Uuskyla)
Kantry (2007)
Volume: Aeter (2007; with Friis Nielsen and Peter Ole Jorgensen)
Shofar (2007; with Shofar)
Intimate conversations (2007; with Joe McPhee and Jay Rosen)
Resonse (2008 with Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis, Tim Daisy, Michael Zerang, Steve Swell, Magnus Broo, Marek Tokar, Per-Ake Holmlander, Yuri Yaremchuk)

http://www.trzaska.art.pl/page16.html

Ken Vandermark

Ken Vandermark, photo by Nikita

Ken Vandermark (b. September 22, 1964, Warwick, Rhode Island, USA; tenor sax, bass clarinet Bb clarinet, baritone sax; Bachelor of Arts in Film and Communications from McGill University, Montreal, 1986).
Since the spring of 1986, Ken Vandermark has worked to expand the possibilities of improvised and composed music. He has worked continuously from the middle 1990's onward- both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe- and his primary creative focus has been contemporary music that deals directly with advanced methods of improvisation. Vandermark moved to Chicago from Boston in 1989. Since then he's performed and recorded in a vast array of contexts, and with many internationally renowned musicians, touring on a regular basis in North America, Europe, and Japan for more than half of each year. His concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed both at home and abroad.
Past groups of significance include the DKV Trio, the Territory Band, NRG Ensemble, AALY, the Vandermark Quartet, Spaceways Inc., FME, School Days, Caffeine, Cinghiale, and Steam. Currently, the majority of his work as a composer and improviser has been developed in the Vandermark 5, Powerhouse Sound, the Frame Quartet, Free Fall, and the Resonance Ensemble. In addition, he works on a regular basis with the total improvisation units Sonore, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, separate duos with the percussionists Paal Nilssen-Love and Tim Daisy, Lean Left, iTi, and Fire Room. Each year brings additional new projects and collaborations, which expand the range of his work. Vandermark also performs in a solo context. During December of 2008 he recorded his first soundtrack, for the documentary film, Strade d'Acqua (Roads of Water), directed by Augusto Contento. A second soundtrack will be developed in the spring of 2010, for another documentary by Contento, this time about Chicago's creative music scene. It will involve Steve Albini, Wayne Montana, David Grubbs, John Herndon, Rob Mazurek, and Chad Taylor.
In addition to his work as a performer, Vandermark has made many significant and highly respected contributions to both the Chicago and International Jazz/Improvised Music scenes by organizing concerts and sponsoring North American tours with a variety of artists and ensembles. With John Corbett he began programing the Empty Bottle “Wednesday Night Jazz Series” in 1996, and it brought musicians from Chicago, North America, and Europe to audiences for nearly a decade. From April 2006 to October 2008 he continued this work by co-directing the "Immediate Sound Series" with Mitch Cocanig at the Hideout; from autumn of 2005 to spring of 2009 he was a member of Umbrella Music, a musician-based group of organizers collaborating in Chicago which also programs an international music festival for Jazz and Improvised Music each November.

Citations of Merit:
- Selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 1999.
- One of the "Chicagoans of the Year in the Arts, 1994" (Chicago Tribune, January 1, 1995) for his work with the Vandermark Quartet.
- Selected as one of the "25 For The Future," the most significant improvising musicians under the age of 40, by Down Beat magazine, June 1998.
- In 2004, was named among the "Musicians Of The Year" by All About Jazz, New York.
- Picked as one of Chicago’s “40 Cultural Heroes” by Time Out magazine in September 2008.

http://www.kenvandermark.com/work.php

Michael Zerang

Michael Zerang, photo by Nikita

Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois and is a first generation American of Assyrian decent. He has been a professional musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. He has collaborated extensively with contemporary theater, dance, and other multidisciplinary forms and has received three Joseph Jefferson Awards for Original Music Composition in Theater, in 1996, 1998, and 2000. He has over sixty titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally since 1981 with and ever-widening pool of collaborators. He was the artistic director of the Link's Hall Performance Series from 1985-1989 where he produced over 300 concerts of jazz, traditional ethnic folk music, electronic music, and other forms of forward thinking music. He continued to produce concerts at Cafe Urbus Orbis from 1994-1996, and at his own space, The Candlestick Maker in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, from 2001 - 2005. He has taught as a guest artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in performance technique, sound design, and sound/music as it relates to puppetry; rhythmic analysis for dancers at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Northwestern University, and MoMing Dance and Arts Center; courses in Composer - Choreographer Collaborations at Northwestern University; music to children at The Jane Adams Hull House. He has held workshops in improvisational music and percussion technique and teaches private lessons in rhythmic analysis, music composition, and percussion technique.

http://www.michaelzerang.com/

Wacław Zimpel

Wacław Zimpel, photo by Krzysztof Penarski

Wacław Zimpel - clarinetist, composer

He has graduated with mention I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań - Poland in prof. Zdzisław Nowak's classical clarinet class. Zimpel studied also at Hochschule Für Musik und Theater in Hannover with prof. Johannes Peitz. His musical ideas are focused on different forms of improvisation and classical music. He has collaborated extensively with major contemporary improvisers and composers, including Ken Vandermark, Bobby Few, Joe McPhee, Steve Cohn, Christian Ramond, Mikołaj Trzaska, Tim Daisy, Steve Swell, Dave Rempis, Klaus Kugel, Marcin Masecki, Raphael Rogiński. His and Tim Daisy's project "Four Walls" was announced "CD of the year 2008" by polish internet jazz magazine "Diapazon".

http://www.waclawzimpel.pl/