Umbrella Music Festival - Day Five: Going Out on a Bomb and a Whisper

Sunday, November 7, 2010
Set 1:
The Outskirts @ The Hungry Brain, Chicago, IL
Dave Rempis: saxophones
Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: bass
Frank Rosaly: drums

Set 2: Touch the Earth II @ The Hungry Brain, Chicago, IL
Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet, thumb piano
Gunter "Baby" Sommer: drums

The Umbrella Music Festival settled into the Hungry Brain for its final night of 2010. Drawing to a conclusion with contrasting sets that showed off both the explosive and introspective sides of the musical offerings for this year.

The Outskirts is a hard hitting ensemble that mines the aggressive free improvisation found along the Peter Brotzmann vein. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten brings a forceful, fist full of bass strings approach to his instrument that stretches his intonation into a rubber band elasticity. Which completely fit the sound for this scorched Earth set. Dave Rempis opened up like a fire hose on the saxophones while Frank Rosaly kept up on percussive battery. As is often the case with music that explores this kind of high intensity material, it's the moments when the group pulls back from the brink that reveal the humanity and inner workings of an emotionally raw creativity.

Wadada Leo Smith and Gunter "Baby" Sommer followed with something completely different. With no less intensity, the trumpet and drums duo explored an other worldly space built from a percolating tranquility. Both of these musicians tapping into an invisible force that moves them along a higher plane of creativity. The result was enthralling. A fitting final expressiveness that draws out what is possible through creative improvised music as an international collaboration.

Umbrella Music Festival - Day Four: Playing with Intensity

Saturday, November 6, 2010
Set 1: Nick Broste Trio @ The Hideout, Chicago, IL
Nick Broste: trombone
Keefe Jackson: reeds
Anton Hatwich: bass

Set 2: Ljungkvist/Buis/McBride/Reed @ The Hideout, Chicago, IL
Fredrik Ljungkvist: reeds
Joost Buis: trombone
Nate McBride: bass
Mike Reed: drums

Set 3: Trio 3 @ The Hideout, Chicago, IL
Oliver Lake: saxophones
Reggie Workman: bass
Andrew Cyrille: drums

The theme of the fourth night of the Umbrella Music Festival was scorched Earth. As each set featured playing that burned just a bit hotter than the frightening Fahrenheit that preceded it. And wasn't that the heat came with volume - though there was no shortage of that - as it did with the display of raw ability and musicianship that could navigate both within and around traditional jazz forms with the implicit threat of toppling those forms ever present. Much of the deep history of the music was itself embodied by the players themselves in the form of Trio 3. A group with roots reaching deep into the sound itself.

The Nick Broste Trio featured a set of straight ahead writing for bass, reeds and trombone. The progressive surprises lurked around the edges of the writing and improvising of this music as the heads of each tune would take oblique angles as the players themselves were clearly familiar with each nook and cranny of the music. The chemistry between these three was also hard to miss.

The combination of Swiss reedsman Fredrik Ljungkvist, Dutch trombonist Joost Buis with Chicago's drum and bass combination of Mike Reed and Nate McBride was a clear example of the kind of cross-Atlantic collaboration that the Umbrella Music organization takes much deserved pride in. These players take raw sound and fearlessly push each other creatively to explore uncompromising heights through improvisation. Their set of free material could have easily become unhinged in the hands of less experienced and capable players. The give and take moved steadily toward more "take" as they fearlessly piled on exquisite layers leading up to some screaming clarinet from Ljungkvist. It was a tremendous thrill ride.

Trio 3 then took to the stage long before the dust had settled from the previous set. One could feel the energy of the packed house at the Hideout change as the reverence toward the lifetime of musical accomplishments of Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille was palpable. Along with a disbelief that all three could be present in such an intimate venue. Then they positively peeled the paint off the walls with their playing. In a festival that brings so many genre-bending performances that vary between free improvisation and reading from charts, Trio 3 presented a forceful reminder of just how much potential and freedom can be mined from a creative approach toward the blues and other blistering interpretations of form. These veterans of jazz were well beyond the terms "titans" or "lions." They are master musicians clearly stating a case for a music's past, present and future as an organic whole.

Umbrella Music Festival - Day Three: Witness to Legends

Friday, November 5, 2010
Set 1:
Slow Cycle @ Elastic, Chicago, IL
Josh Berman: cornet
Jason Stein: bass clarinet
Nate McBride: bass
Frank Rosaly: drums

Set 2:
David S. Ware Solo @ Elastic, Chicago, IL
David S. Ware: sopranino saxophone, tenor saxophone

Set 3:
Mark Helias' Open Loose @ Elastic, Chicago, IL
Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone
Mark Helias: bass
Tom Rainey: drums

The Umbrella Music Festival folded into one of its regular venues after whetting the appetite with two nights of free music. The packed house listened attentively as an astonishing array of legends of improvised music provided the strongest evening yet for the festival.

Slow Cycle brings a stripped down approach toward its mining of the free jazz vein opened up by Ornette Coleman more than fifty years ago. Frank Rosaly's drum kit consisting of little more than a kick, snare, high hat and one cymbal. A physical manifestation of the essence of this group aesthetic. And they attack their craft with a passionate aggression that places these players solidly on the spectrum of Coleman, Cherry, Haden and Higgins. Complete with a renewed sense of energy as this quartet brings its own sense of individuality and timbral variation to a sound that remains the shape of things to come.

This was followed by the almost indescribably moving force of David S. Ware's solo performance. Sitting in the front row, literally at the feet of this master musician was an experience of surprisingly mystical dimensions. His first piece thoroughly explored the startling range of the sopranino saxophone with a sound that occasionally climbed just within the ear drums. He then turned his attention to the tenor saxophone for an even more impressive improvisation.

Then came the trio of all-stars known as Mark Helias' Open Loose with a music that exuded that great New York sound from every possible angle. From Helias' compositions and creative direction to the always stunning playing of both Tom Rainey (a long time favorite drummer at this blog) and Ellery Eskelin. Eskelin's playing seemed to have impossibly evolved even beyond his high level of playing from the last time I heard him play live. He has become a real stand out on the tenor.

Umbrella Music Festival - Day Two: Two Tubas and Some Saxophones

Thursday, November 4, 2010
Set 1:
Chicago Luzern Exchange @ Randolph Street Cafe, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Josh Berman: cornet
Marc Unternahrer: tuba
Keefe Jackson: reeds
Frank Rosaly: drums

Set 2:
Waclaw Zimpel Quartet @ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Waclaw Zimpel: bass clarinet
Matt Schneider: guitar
Devin Hoff: bass
Tim Daisy: drums

Set 3:
The Long Run Development of the Universe @ Randolph Street Cafe, Chicago Cultural Center, IL
Carl Ludwig Hubsch: tuba
Wolter Wierbos: trombone
Matthias Schubert: tenor saxophone

Set 4:
Fredrik Ljungkvist Sextet @ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Fredrik Ljungkvist: reeds
Nicole Mitchell: flute
Nick Mazzarella: alto saxophone
Jim Baker: piano, synthesizer
Joshua Abrams: bass
Marc Riordan: drums

The energy and fluctuating forces of creative music continued into the second evening of performances at the Umbrella Music Festival as the celebration of European and Chicago improvisers concluded its stint at the Chicago Cultural Center. Jazz has truly become a music without hard borders and the quality and inventiveness of its European practitioners makes for a compelling counterbalance to the more conservative forces within North America.

The Chicago Luzern Exchange offered up a set of pointillistic free improvisation. Short gestures from the individual members of this quartet came together to form phrases stretched across the group as a whole as they explored a range of timbral variation through an extensive use of mutes and frictions. Marc Unternahrer's deft agility on the tuba was immediately striking.

Waclaw Zimpel's set featured a collection of charts by the talented bass clarinetist from Poland. Anchored by the profoundly impressive rhythm section of Devin Hoff and Tin Daisy, this music occupied a bright spot along the jazz continuum. Zimpel's sense of form left plenty of room for exquisite cadenzas and codas as the occasional augmented second would appear as an aural expression of his geographical influences.

This was followed by a big bang of creative music expression in the form of The Long Run Development of the Universe down in the Randolph Street Cafe. The German and Dutch trio of Hubsch, Wierbos and Schubert served up an irreverent, theatrical and wickedly mischievous set that relied upon equal parts high energy and deep musical chops. Theirs was a reminder that relentlessly open and experimental music can also be whimsical and fun.

The highlight of the evening was the final set featuring the Fredrik Ljungkvist Sextet. A collection of Chicago all-stars at Ljungkvist's disposal as the ensemble played through his excellent charts. The combination of great writing with a high caliber of musicianship to back it up is a formula that rarely falls short. The transitions between ideas formed a series of waves as great solos and arrangements kept churning throughout the set.

Umbrella Music Festival - Day One: Swinging from Austere to Groove

Fifth Annual Umbrella Music Festival - Day One
November 3, 2010

First Set:
Xavier Charles Trio @ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Xavier Charles: clarinet
Nate McBride: bass
Tim Daisy: drums

Second Set:
Marraffa/Braida Duo @ Preston-Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Edoardo Marraffa: tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone
Alberto Braida: piano

Third Set:
Kurzmann/Falzone Duo @ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Christof Kurzmann: electronics
James Falzone: clarinet

Fourth Set:
Agusti Fernandez @ Preston-Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Agusti Fernandez: piano

Fifth Set:
Joost Buis Ensemble @ Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Joost Buis: trombone
Josh Berman: cornet
Jorrit Dijkstra: alto saxophone
Keefe Jackson: tenor saxophone
Dave Rempis: tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Matt Schneider: guitar
Jason Roebke: bass
Mike Reed: drums
Charles Rumback: drums

The strong ties between the Chicago improvisers of the Umbrella Music organization and their fellow creative music travelers from Europe was on full display as the fifth annual Umbrella Music Festival got under way at the Chicago Cultural Center. The sympathetic vibrations shared across the Atlantic allowed for instant collaborations to form. The five sets of the evening followed an unusual contour from uncompromising, full length free improvisations of coarse textures leading into a groove steady, accessible set of pieces by Joost Buis.

French clarinetist Xavier Charles builds improvisation around the edges of his instrument. Around the edges of texture and perceptibility. With Chicago's Nate McBride and Tim Daisy on bass and drums (easily one of the more impressive rhythm sections I've discovered in my brief time in the windy city) he had a ready made trio made up of profoundly sympathetic ears. The trio explored a texture of grains and gestures that cut sharp slash marks across time with its restlessness. Drawing the ears into a territory of whispered contours.

The Italian duo of Edoardo Marraffa and Alberto Braida followed with a set of considerable force and fortissimo. Operating like skilled stone carvers, this pair left considerable shards of stone and rubble in their wake with a sound made up of muscle. Their ability to respond and react to one another allowed them to pull back from time to time and reveal the human tendons and connecting tissue that allow them to flex their brutality with a balance of sensitivity.

The duo of Austria's Christof Kurzmann on laptop with Chicago's James Falzone on clarinet offered up a timbral interplay between the electronic and acoustic. Each improviser showing restraint that barely hinted at the considerable potential lurking within their respective talents. It was a beautiful tour de force of phrasing woven against an intricate drone that settled toward a sense of pulse toward the end.

Spain's Agusti Fernandez's solo piano set was the highlight of the evening. Beginning exclusively within the innards of the piano with brilliantly subtle, quiet sounds. This performance built into a fantastic crescendo as Fernandez's physical relationship with the grand piano as a whole evolved toward a keyboard language of glissando and harmonic material that mirrored the quiet universe found within the instrument earlier in the performance. The continuity of gestures and the intensity of building such a large sound over a generous span of time gave this performance tremendous gravity.

The closing set from the Joost Buis Ensemble offered up charts and featured soloists from a great band. With material that ranged from whimsical materials hinting at Raymond Scott to raw, free improvisations poured into predetermined structures and spaces. Focal points shifted democratically to allow each individual force to emerge into the foreground within the natural ebb and flow of the compositions. The line between the notated and improvised material often blurred by a creative sense of form. It was a welcome dose of the Amsterdam sound that these ears have grown increasingly curious about.