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| 4.620 Ft
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| 1. | Blow Up
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| 2. | Flamingos Dancing on Luminescent Moonbeams
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| 3. | Boiled Over
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| 4. | Le Sucrier Velours
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| 5. | Components Changes
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| 6. | Playground
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| 7. | Jeff's New Idea
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| 8. | The Inner Soul of H
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| 9. | Whitney
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| 10. | Ostinato
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Jazz / Hard Bop
Rob Mazurek - Bamboo Flute, Cornet, Producer, Photography, Trumpet, Toy Trumpet, Bells
Chicago Underground Orchestra
Chad Taylor - Drums
Chris Lopes - Indian Flute, Vocals, Bass
Chris Lopez - Bass
Dan Bitney - Conga
Jeff Parker - Recorder, Cowbell, Guitar, Producer
Johnny Herdon - Bongos
Al Brandtner Design
Bundy K. Brown Engineer, Mixing
Peter Margasak Liner Note Compilation
Robert G. Koester Producer
Sara P. Smith Recorder, Trombone, Glockenspiel, Vocals, Percussion, Cymbals
Tony Pinciotti Percussion
After a standout set on the main stage of the Chicago Jazz Festival this summer, there has been quite a buzz about the debut recording of Robert Mazurek's Chicago Underground Orchestra. On Playground, the Orchestra effortlessly channels highly intuitive and energetic free playing (with a nod to electric Miles) into inherently tuneful compositions by trumpeter Mazurek and guitarist Jeff Parker, with a band rounded out by some truly imaginative players: trombonist Sara Smith, bassist Chris Lopez, and drummer Chad Taylor. Features members of popular post-rock Chicago ensembles Tortoise and Isotope.
A revelation. Cornetist Mazurek and his Chicago Underground Orchestra -- here consisting of guitarist Jeff Parker (from Tortoise), trombonist Sara P. Smith, bassist Chris Lopes, and drummer Chad Taylor -- create some of the freshest sounds of late-'90s jazz. Mazurek and Parker's original tunes have the loose improvisatory feel of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock's late-'60s compositions, giving soloists free reign to strut their stuff. The two cover tunes -- Hancock's "Blow Up" and Duke Ellington's "Le Sucrier Velours" -- sound right at home here, with the first treated to a driving, percussive workout, while the latter floats along at a more meditative pace. Imaginative use of instrumental colors and combinations prevail throughout the album. Mazurek's playing on the drifting "Inner Soul of H" has that vulnerable purity that Miles Davis exhibited on his In a Silent Way sessions. High praise. ~ Rick Watrous, All Music Guide
Rob Mazurek
Active Decades: '90s and '00s
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Electronic, Avant-Garde, Neo-Bop, Post-Bop, Hard Bop, Post-Rock/Experimental, Avant-Garde Jazz
Originally rooted in the tradition of hard bop jazz, cornetist Rob Mazurek developed into one of the most consistently exciting pure improvisers of his time. As a founding member of the multifaceted Chicago Underground collective and the 21st century fusion outfit Isotope 217, his playing has redefined musical boundaries through vibrant sonic palettes that defy categorization.
Born in 1965 in Jersey City, NJ, Mazurek moved with his family to the Chicago area as a preteen, and began playing cornet in his school band at the age of ten. After switching briefly to trumpet, he eventually settled on the smaller horn. Upon graduating from high school, the young musician attended the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago. He got his start as a performer in the city, playing with pianist Kenny Prince and drummer Yoron Israel. Early influences came from the hard bop nucleus of Blue Note Records (particularly the trumpet playing of Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, and Freddie Hubbard). It was in this mold that Mazurek shaped his first group, a quartet with drummer George Fludas, bassist John Webber, and pianist Randolph Tressler. In 1993, Mazurek booked an engagement at Edinburgh's Tron Tavern & Ceilidh House for the entire length of the country's Fringe Festival. Though the music was fairly traditional, the performances were a success and the following year the group was offered a deal with Scotland's Hep label. The quartet's promise was certified with Man Facing East in 1994 and Badlands in 1995.
Mazurek was hearing a new sound, however. His creative impulses were being sparked by the music of Ornette Coleman and his cornet-wielding sparring partner from the late '50s, Don Cherry, as well as the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The list would quickly grow to include the free playing of Henry Threadgill, Bill Dixon, and Leo Smith, and by the time of 1996's Green & Blue, Mazurek was beginning to see the limits of his quartet. That year he established the Chicago Underground, a Sunday afternoon workshop at a local bar, the Green Mill. The first person he invited to his new musical high-wire act was guitarist Jeff Parker. The jam sessions quickly attracted a group of regulars including bassist Noel Kupersmith and drummer Chad Taylor, and Mazurek found that he had the core for an ensemble. It was this new crew (completed by trombonist Sara Smith), billed as the Chicago Underground Orchestra, that recorded Playground for Bob Koester's Delmark in 1998. The partnership automatically linked Mazurek's group with a rich tradition of Chicago jazz, as Delmark had championed a number of artists from the city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
Mazurek's Orchestra would spawn a number of spinoffs including a Duo (with Taylor), Trio (with Kupersmith), and a Quartet (with Parker), all of which wore the Chicago Underground banner. Parker had moved into the loft of Chicago out-rockers Tortoise a few years earlier and quickly became a full-time member. Two musical worlds -- fringe jazz and fringe rock -- met and Mazurek found himself exposed to an entirely new realm of sonic possibilities. In the years that followed, he made numerous extracurricular appearances, lending his cornet to Tortoise's TNT, Gastr del Sol's Camoufleur, Stereolab's Cobra and Phases Group, and Sam Prekop's solo debut, among others. It was out of this musical cross-fertilization that, in 1997, Isotope 217 was born. A disorienting mix of jazz flourishes, muscular funk, hip-hop reductions, and minimalist electronica, the group was a collaboration between Orchestra members (Mazurek, Parker, and Smith), veteran Chicago bassist Matt Lux, and Tortoise's Dan Bitney and John Herndon. The sextet released its debut, The Unstable Molecule, in 1998, followed by Utonian Automatic (1999) and Who Stole the I Walkman? (2000).
Meanwhile, the music emanating from the Chicago Underground was approaching the realm of pure sound on albums like Synesthesia and Possible Cube. Mazurek had discovered the music of Morton Feldman and Vladimir Ussachevsky as well as visual artists like Mark Rothko, all of which seemed to find a way into the music. As the century drew to a close, he was hard at work developing laptop-constructed musique concrète for his Orton Socket project. Mazurek subsequently moved from the United States to São Paulo, Brazil, and has continued to maintain an internationalist perspective, touring and recording with such ensembles as the São Paulo Underground, the Exploding Star Orchestra, and the improvisational trio Tigersmilk, and presenting new works at the Dieppe Biennale in Normandy, France, in 2007.
---Nathan Bush, All Music Guide |
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