Rempis/Reid/Abrams + Rempis/Adasiewicz/Abrams/Damon

21+. 9pm.

Set 1 : REMPIS/REID/ABRAMS 

Dave Rempis – saxophones

Tomeka Reid – cello

Joshua Abrams – bass

Set 2 : REMPIS/ADASIEWICZ/ABRAMS/DAMON

Dave Rempis – saxophones

Jason Adasiewicz – vibes

Joshua Abrams – bass

Tyler Damon – drums

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Although each member of the ensemble is no doubt comfortable as a soloist, with significant leader credits under each of their belts, here they shirk that approach in favor of a music that is unflinchingly interactive and group-oriented. In this context, solo explorations don’t drive the music, but instead the sum of the three parts together delivers an unstoppable momentum recalling the type of egalitarian interactions pioneered by the trio of Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, and Steve Swallow in the early 1960’s.   The resulting pieces, each one a thoroughly unique and cohesive landscape, deliver a strikingly clear example of what’s possible when musicians with broad interests in all types of contemporary musical expression combine their aesthetics in a non-genre and non-stylistically bound approach. Rempis, Reid, and Abrams deliver a wholly original sound, straddling the intersections of free improvisation, contemporary classical, jazz, and folk musics from around the world, without being contained by the precepts of any one of those influences. All of this begs the question if their music is “freely improvised,” or “instantly composed,” or if it’s a set of pre-existing compositions that the band developed and rehearsed extensively, or if it’s a mix of all of those things? Perhaps it doesn’t matter?

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The second set tonight features a relatively new collaborative project.  This quartet features some of the best-known improvisers in Chicago, with a web of history between them going back decades.  This concert will be the band’s fourth – long enough to have developed a distinct sound as an ensemble, but fresh enough that each concert holds a whole new path of discovery.