Ken Vandermark News

This year's event - which, for the fourth turn of the calendar, "celebrates jazz and improvised music from Chicago and beyond" - extends over four days and includes performances from Matthew Shipp and a quartet that includes Tortoise 's John Herndon .

Not Two Records Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader Ken Vandermark has led his flagship ensemble, the Vandermark 5, through a decade's worth of personnel changes.

The latest statement from this long running group was recorded live at the club Alchemia in Krakow during March of 2009.

With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, AAJ Managing Editor John Kelman wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to commence our season-long celebration of the work and life of multi-instrumentalist and composer Don Cherry .

Ken Vandermark is one of the great nomads of the jazz world, roaming the Earth in search of music to play and fellow travelers to collaborate with.

All About Jazz is celebrating Ken Vandermark's birthday today! Ken Vandermark For the past 20 years, Ken Vandermark has been exploring and working to expand the possibilities of improvised and composed music in North America and Europe.

The Vandermark 5 is reedman and composer Ken Vandermark's best-known group, out of well over 30 different bands he's involved in.

Earlier this year I interviewed Ken Vandermark for a feature that ran in Down Beat magazine.

Cool show: Ken Vandermark was an unknown Chicago saxophonist in 1999 when, in the midst of a show at the Bop Shop, he received a phone call that he'd just been awarded the prestigious MacArthur 'Genius' Grant.

Cool show: Ken Vandermark was an unknown Chicago saxophonist in 1999 when, in the midst of a show at the Bop Shop, he received a phone call that he'd just been awarded the prestigious MacArthur 'Genius' Grant.

Does the world really need another rock band? If the band is fronted by Mac McCaughan, yes.

Cool show: Ken Vandermark was an unknown Chicago saxophonist in 1999 when, in the midst of a show at the Bop Shop, he received a phone call that he'd just been awarded the prestigious MacArthur 'Genius' Grant.

History reveals a long list of venues that have contributed positively to the recorded legacy of some of the greatest figures in jazz.

For as long as I've lived in this hep little burg, pessimists and killjoys alike have consistently bemoaned Columbia's inability to attract good touring bands.

Clean Feed Records The brainchild of trombonists Jeb Bishop and Jeff Albert , the Lucky 7's are a consummate example of post-Vandermark Chicago-based collectivism.

Several years ago, I became a big fan of saxophonist Ken Vandermark's great jazz group The Vandermark Five, and was introduced to a vibrant and thrilling modern jazz scene in Chicago.

The founding father of the European Free Jazz movement, German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann has made important contributions with Last Exit , Die Like a Dog and his Chicago- and Scandinavian-based Tentet with Ken Vandermark.

There are more than enough attractions in Milwaukee to make the short trip worthwhile any day of the year, but this weekend there's plenty of extra incentive.

Seeing as this received a crown in the Penguin Guide and influenced Ken Vandermark to the point that he named one of his groups after it, I knew I wanted to give it a try, but but found it to be tough sledding indeed.