9.4.05
O caso é sério. Acaba de sair na polaca Not Two Records, dirigida por Marek Winiarski, uma caixa com 12-doze-12 CD's (!) contendo a integral das gravações que o Vandermark Five realizou durante uma estadia de cinco dias e cinco noites em Cracóvia, Polónia, entre 15 e 19 de Março de 2004.
Sob o título Alchemia, nome do clube onde decorreram os concertos, alinha-se um total de 55 temas, 32 composições de Ken Vandermark retiradas dos 8 álbuns do V5, e 3 estreias mundiais: "Camera", "That Was Now" e "Pieces Of The Past".
The Vandermartk Five: Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis, Jeb Bishop, Kent Kessler e Tim Daisy. Participam ainda os músicos polacos Marcin Oleś e Bartłomiej Brat Oleś, que ajudam à festa em contrabaixo e bateria nos discos 11 e 12.
Alchemia representa o estado da arte sonora de uma das mais activas bandas do soprador de Chicago, que segundo o próprio, nos dias de Cracóvia compunha de manhã, ensaiava à tarde e tocava ao vivo à noite, em regime intensivo, à semelhança do que Duke Ellington praticava com as suas orquestras. Uma esforçada workshopping unit.
Someone who has always idolized Duke Ellington's methods of creativity, I conceived of the Vandermark 5 from the beginning as an attempt to develop, as close as I could, a working band based on Ellington's example. The quintet was formed in the spring of 1996, and by the time these concerts occurred four of the members had been working together since 1997, and the fifth, Tim Daisy, had been with the band for more than 2 years. Over that stretch of time, the Vandermark 5 went from being a workshopping unit that performed every week during the late 1990's at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, to becoming an international touring ensemble whose concerts most often occurred on the road in North America or Europe. During its entire existence, however, the group has always focused on creating new material through consistent rehearsal and performance. The shifts in the aesthetics of the band caused by this work are well documented through the studio and live recordings available on Atavistic records. This is the first occasion, however, where the quintet has been represented in the way it actually played - night after night. In most cases, the only people who really experience the ongoing process and creativity of a working improvised music ensemble are its members. At best, most listeners hear but one concert on a tour because the group will likely move onto another city or town the next day. One of my personal goals is to bring the music to clubs and smaller venues on a regular basis, for a series of concerts during several nights at the same location. The Vandermark 5 residency in Krakow at Alchemia is proof that the idea can work - we played to packed houses every single night, and the energy coming to and from the stage on those evenings is something I will never forget. When Marek originally proposed the idea of recording these concerts the intention was not to release everything as a box set, something that would have clearly been considered economically insane, but to select the strongest performances for use as a double cd co-production with Atavistic. After the series ended, however, Marek fought for the idea to release all of the material in this production, and I am thankful for it. There are a few problematic moments on these recordings: such as the end of "Gyllene" from the third night, a screw on my baritone came loose during the final theme which made it impossible for me to play; and some sections of the new pieces are faulty, we were literally learning as we went along. (Note: "Camera", "That Was Now", and "Pieces Of The Past", were further developed and refined during work in Chicago and on the road in North America with the Scandinavian group, Atomic, during June and July of 2004. They are included in the Vandermark 5's upcoming double cd on Atavistic, "The Color Of Memory"). These awkward moments don't make me proud, but Marek's argument for including everything as it happened is a sound one - the music on these cds represents who we were and how we really played on those 5 nights in March, right or wrong. I feel very fortunate to have a document of these concerts, and to have been able to work with Jeb, Tim, Kent, and Dave for such a long and creative time. Here's to the memory of those nights, what they represent, and to those countless glasses of buffalo grass vodka...
Someone who has always idolized Duke Ellington's methods of creativity, I conceived of the Vandermark 5 from the beginning as an attempt to develop, as close as I could, a working band based on Ellington's example. The quintet was formed in the spring of 1996, and by the time these concerts occurred four of the members had been working together since 1997, and the fifth, Tim Daisy, had been with the band for more than 2 years. Over that stretch of time, the Vandermark 5 went from being a workshopping unit that performed every week during the late 1990's at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, to becoming an international touring ensemble whose concerts most often occurred on the road in North America or Europe. During its entire existence, however, the group has always focused on creating new material through consistent rehearsal and performance. The shifts in the aesthetics of the band caused by this work are well documented through the studio and live recordings available on Atavistic records. This is the first occasion, however, where the quintet has been represented in the way it actually played - night after night. In most cases, the only people who really experience the ongoing process and creativity of a working improvised music ensemble are its members. At best, most listeners hear but one concert on a tour because the group will likely move onto another city or town the next day. One of my personal goals is to bring the music to clubs and smaller venues on a regular basis, for a series of concerts during several nights at the same location. The Vandermark 5 residency in Krakow at Alchemia is proof that the idea can work - we played to packed houses every single night, and the energy coming to and from the stage on those evenings is something I will never forget. When Marek originally proposed the idea of recording these concerts the intention was not to release everything as a box set, something that would have clearly been considered economically insane, but to select the strongest performances for use as a double cd co-production with Atavistic. After the series ended, however, Marek fought for the idea to release all of the material in this production, and I am thankful for it. There are a few problematic moments on these recordings: such as the end of "Gyllene" from the third night, a screw on my baritone came loose during the final theme which made it impossible for me to play; and some sections of the new pieces are faulty, we were literally learning as we went along. (Note: "Camera", "That Was Now", and "Pieces Of The Past", were further developed and refined during work in Chicago and on the road in North America with the Scandinavian group, Atomic, during June and July of 2004. They are included in the Vandermark 5's upcoming double cd on Atavistic, "The Color Of Memory"). These awkward moments don't make me proud, but Marek's argument for including everything as it happened is a sound one - the music on these cds represents who we were and how we really played on those 5 nights in March, right or wrong. I feel very fortunate to have a document of these concerts, and to have been able to work with Jeb, Tim, Kent, and Dave for such a long and creative time. Here's to the memory of those nights, what they represent, and to those countless glasses of buffalo grass vodka...
- Ken Vandermark, Chicago, February 1, 2005.
