Ken Vandermark

Eyebrows were raised in the jazz world when it was announced that the relatively obscure and young Ken Vandermark was to receive a 1999 MacArthur "Genius" grant. Previous MacArthur recipients among jazz musicians included Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton -- near-legendary figures who, over the course of long careers, created substantial bodies of work that have (to some degree) stood the test of time. Vandermark, just 35 at the time, was little-known outside of Chicago, and his music was not universally accepted to be as significant as musicians' like Taylor and Braxton. Whether or not he "deserved" such recognition at such a young age is subject to debate, but there's no question that Vandermark is a talented musician. His tenor sax and bass clarinet work is strong and expressive; his technique on all of his horns is as sure as can be, and his improvising and compositional styles are as intellectually engaging as they are original. Vandermark began playing trumpet in fourth grade and then switched to tenor sax as a junior in high school. He attended McGill University from 1982 to 1986. In 1986, he moved to Boston, where he led a trio called Lombard Street and studied bass clarinet. In 1989, he moved from Boston to Chicago, where he first attracted notice as a member of Hal Russell 's NRG Ensemble. His activities increased; he began leading several ensembles and became a mover and shaker, promoting and booking events with influential jazz critic John Corbett. His presence became a constant on the Chicago arts scene; he performs with a variety of bands, including the DKV Trio, Witches & Devils, the Joe Harriot Project, Steam, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, and the Vandermark 5, the latter of which has released over ten albums, including 2001's Acoustic Machine, 2005's Color of Memory, and 2006's Free Jazz Classics, Vols. 3 & 4. A Discontinuous Line also appeared in 2006 from Atavistic.

from Wikipedia:

Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964 in Warwick, Rhode Island) is an American jazz composer and saxophone and clarinet player.

A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate improvisation. He has led or been a member of many groups, has collaborated with many other musicians, and was awarded a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship. He plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet; in about 2000, added baritone saxophone to his arsenal, and often favors the instrument, particularly in larger ensembles.

He was also a member of NRG Ensemble.

Biography

Boston and Montreal

Vandermark grew up in Massachusetts, graduating from Natick High School. His father, Stu, is a noted jazz critic. Vandermark performed and led groups while in high school and at McGill University in Montreal from which he graduated in 1986. He is mostly self-taught as a musician, but studied intermittently with George Garzone in the early 1980s.

Returning to the Boston area after graduation, he led or co-led groups (including Lombard Street and Mr. Furious) in Boston. Compositions/arrangements for the Boston-based groups set the groundwork for and predicted approaches to recordings and live performances developed in Chicago. Although a trio, Lombard Street incorporated “suite forms” characteristic of later arrangements for groups of both substantial and limited instrumentation. Vandermark’s “dedication pieces” are found first in Lombard Street performances, as in the case of “The Politics of Sound,” which was dedicated to the musicians in Boston-based ensembles Shock Exchange, The Fringe, and the Joe Morris Trio. Works performed by Mr. Furious, such as “Cold Coffee,” include some of the most convincing early examples of Vandermark’s signature free-ranging charts. Developed further in Barrage Double Trio (e.g., “Agamemnon Sleeps”) this simultaneously linear and episodic perspective on arrangement broadly has been the overarching architecture in most of his works for large-ensembles since that time.

Chicago

Vandermark has lived in Chicago since autumn 1989. Since then, he has performed or recorded with many musicians (including Hal Russell, Paal Nilssen-Love, Hamid Drake, Fred Anderson, David Stackenäs, Paul Lytton, Joe Morris, Ab Baars, The Ex, Marcin Oles, Axel Doerner, Mats Gustafsson, Bartlomiej Oles, Wolter Wierbos, Joe McPhee, Zu, Peter Brötzmann, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Paul Lovens, Lasse Marhaug, Yakuza, Kevin Drumm, and members of Superchunk). He first gained widespread attention while with the NRG Ensemble from 1992 to 1996. He was once a member of Witches and Devils and the Flying Luttenbachers and has led or co-led several groups, including DKV Trio, Free Fall, Territory Band, CINC, Sonore, the Vandermark 5, the Free Music Ensemble, School Days, the Sound in Action Trio, Steam and Powerhouse Sound.

The Joe Harriott Project, a brief celebration of Harriott in 1998 in the Chicago area, consisted of Ken Vandermark (reeds), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Kent Kessler (bass), and Tim Mulvenna (drums). The band played the music of Joe Harriott, transcribed and arranged by Vandermark.

In 2002 Vandermark recorded Furniture Music, his first released performances as an unaccompanied soloist.

After several years of Vandermark 5 performances of his arrangements of works by Sonny Rollins, Joe McPhee, Cecil Taylor, and others, Vandermark in 2005 announced, "Though I have learned a great deal by rearranging some of my favorite composers' work for the Vandermark 5, it's time to leave that process behind and focus more completely on my own ideas."

Vandermark is the subject of Musician (2007), one of a series of Daniel Kraus video documentaries on contemporary occupations.

Awards

Vandermark won the Cadence magazine poll in 1998 for best artist and best recording. He was a finalist for the 1998 Herb Alpert Fellowship. In 1999 Vandermark was awarded a $265,000 MacArthur Fellowship, a prize then awarded on an age-based scale to creative leaders and meant to enable them to pursue their creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations. The MacArthur fellowship was somewhat controversial, due to Vandermark's relative youth and obscurity: he was 35 and known mostly in Chicago, while other jazz performers awarded the Fellowship were better known (Cecil Taylor, George Russell) and older.