RESONANCE - Live At Alchemia 2007, Final Concert - Set 1 & Set 2 (2009)

Label: Not Two Records
Catalog ID: MW 830-2
Product Code: 12139
Recorded at Alchemia Manggha Hall (final concert) in Kraków, Poland by Marcin Chlebowski, Michal Cholewa, Jacek Laton - MAQ Records Studio. Records. Final concert mixing and mastering by Bob Weston and Ken Vandermark at Chicago Mastering Service.
All compositions by Ken Vandermark (Twenty First Mobile Music / ASCAP)


Note:

The Resonance Ensemble, an international New Jazz group, began as a co-presentation by American musician, Ken Vandermark, and Polish concert promoter and wonder of Not Two Records, Marek Winiarski. Vandermark has been performing in Poland since the mid 2000s, with a large number of groups (the Vandermark 5, duo with Paal Nilssen-Love, Sonore, Free Fall, Powerhouse Sound, the Frame Quartet and many more), and decided that is was time to organize a band that included musicians from that part of the world. After consulting with Winiarski, the two combined their resources and knowledge to organize a large unit of improvisers from the contemporary scene. In addition to Vandermark [reeds], the project included Magnus Broo [trumpet] and Per-Ake Holmlander [tuba] from Stockholm; Tim Daisy [drums], Dave Rempis [saxophones], and Michael Zerang [percussion] from Chicago; Steve Swell [trombone] from New York; Mark Tokar [bass] and Yuri Yarumchuk [reeds] from Lviv; and Mikolaj Trzaska [reeds] from Gdansk.

In November of 2007, Vandermark arrived in Krakow to complete four new compositions for this ten piece orchestra, all of the pieces loosely based on his impressions of time spent in Poland as a musician and traveler. After a week, that work was done and the other artists arrived. For five days the group rehearsed at the Alchemia club during the day, then played in small Improvised Music configurations at night. On November 17, the Resonance Ensemble traveled overnight by bus to perform for the first time, in Lviv, Ukraine. (This concert, which took place for an audience of over 800 people, was recorded, and the second set was released as an album by Not Two in the fall of 2008.) The next morning the band returned to Krakow for a concert at the Manghha Museum, playing to another sold out crowd. All of the performances in Krakow, by the small units and the full ensemble, were released in October of 2009 by Not Two as a 10cd box set; just in time for the band's first tour of Europe.

The Resonance Ensemble's music has advanced Vandermark's composing methods for large groups, work that started with the early music of Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, which then continued with his Territory Bands. Much of the first Resonance material combined his interest in “ suite forms ” (perhaps most influenced by Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus) and a collaging approach to improvising structures that he began with the Territory Band. The initial project by the group provided Vandermark with the first opportunity in his career to do nothing but compose for a week. In September of 2009, he began a new approach to writing for the project, a series of “ modular pieces, ” which could be reassembled for each performance, giving added spontaneity to both the improvising and the compositional structures. The results of these new compositional strategies, developed over a 10 day European tour, resulted with the album, "Kafka In Flight," which was recorded live in Gdansk, Poland, and is also part of the Not Two catalog.

Vandermark's creative activity has remained focused on the Resonance Ensemble and its innovations. During March of 2011 the band, and its association with Polish culture, was celebrated by the "Resonance Festival" held in both Chicago and Milwaukee; the group's latest recording for Not Two, "What Country Is This?" was made at the end of that period. In addition, the ensemble toured Europe for a second time in March of 2012, performing in Austria, Slovenia, Poland, and Belgium.

In November of 2007, Vandermark arrived in Krakow to complete four new compositions for this ten piece orchestra, all of the pieces loosely based on his impressions of time spent in Poland as a musician and traveler. After a week that work was done and the other artists arrived. For five days the group rehearsed at the Alchemia club during the day, then played in small Improvised Music configurations at night. On November 17, the Resonance Ensemble traveled overnight by bus to perform for the first time, in Lviv, Ukraine. (This concert, which took place for an audience of over 800 people, was recorded, the second set was released as an album by Not Two in the fall of 2008.) The next morning the band returned to Krakow for a concert at the Manghha Museum, playing to another sold out crowd. All of the performances in Krakow, by the small units and the full ensemble, were released in October of 2009 by Not Two as a 10cd box set; just in time for the band's first tour of Europe.

The Resonance Ensemble's music has advanced Vandermark's composing methods for large groups, work that started with the early music of Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, and then continued with his Territory Bands. Much of the new material combines his interest in “ suite forms ” (perhaps most influenced by Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus) and a collaging approach to improvising structures that he began with the Territory Band. The project provided Vandermark with the first opportunity in his career to do nothing but compose for a week. In September of 2009, he began a new approach to writing for the project, a series of “ modular pieces, ” which can be reassembled for each performance, giving added spontaneity to both the improvising and the compositional structure. The results of these new compositional strategies, coupled with a 10 day European tour, has resulted in the newest album by the band, "Kafka In Flight," which was recorded live in Gdansk, Poland, and is also part of the Not Two catalog. In March of 2011 the Resonance Ensemble, and its association with Polish culture, will be celebrated by the Resonance Festival held in both Chicago and Milwaukee, and a new recording for another album by the band on Not Two.

Band Members:
Ken Vandermark (USA) tenor & baritone saxes, clarinet Magnus Broo (Sweden) trumpet Tim Daisy (USA) drums Per-Âke Holmlander (Sweden) tuba Dave Rempis (USA) tenor & alto saxes Steve Swell (USA) trombone Mark Tokar (Ukraine) bass Mikołaj Trzaska (Poland) alto sax, bass clarinet Yuriy Yaremchuk (Ukraine) tenor & soprano saxes, bass clarinet Michael Zerang (USA) drums, percussion


Note from Ken Vandermark:

The first album I bought as a kid, with my own money was a Woody Herman album featuring his Thundering Herds from the 1945-47 period; where they played charts like "Woodchopper’s Ball", "Apple Honey", "The Good Earth", "Wild Root" and "Four Brothers". Though I didnt know it at the time, this was a document of a big band in transition, moving from the Swing era towards BeBop (with the help of people like Dizzy Gillespie, who wrote arrangements for the band in 1942). I grew up with the records of Duke Ellington, Gil Evans & Miles Davis, and Count Basic playing on my father ’ s stereo. I ’ m not sure if this is the reason why I am so attached to writing for larger ensembles, or if it ’ s just that composing for bigger groups is such a phenomenal experience; maybe it ’ s a bit of both. But the end result is the same— for me, there is something permanently important and interesting about composing for, and working with, a large group.

The first chance I had to really write for a big ensemble was given to me by Peter Brotzmann, for the initial version of his Chicago Tentet. The piece was called, “ Other Brothers, ” a nod to Jimmy Giuffre ’ s famous composition for Woody Herman ’ s Thundering Herd, “ Four Brothers, ” and an acknowledgement of the saxophone lineup in the band at that time: Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Mars Williams, myself. That was in 1997. Since then, I ’ ve continued to try and find more opportunities to keep writing for larger groups. The Territory Bands I put together throughout the start of this century were the first chances I had to organize my own ensembles of this type. There were two “ one off “ Chicago orchestras during this period as well— the Crisis Ensemble, which played at the 2003 Chicago Jazz Festival; and the Index Orkest, which played at the second anniversary of the Immediate Sound Series at the Hideout in Chicago during April of 2008 (another nod, this time to the Ex Orkest).

My next chance to write for an extended group came at the instigation of Marek Winiarski, of Not Two records. The first work we did on this project was released on the “ Live in Lviv ” LP, (released in 2008) and the “ Resonance Box Set. ” (released in 2009). One of the primary issues facing any band that deals with written material is having enough time to rehearse. In a larger ensemble this problem is compounded many times over. With the Territory Bands, and the Chicago groups mentioned above, it was possible to rehearse for several days due to MacArthur financing (in the case of the Territory Band) or the close proximity of the musicians involved (in the case of the Chicago based groups). The first music performed by the Resonance Ensemble in 2007 was possible because we had five days of rehearsals in Krakow before our initial concert together in Lviv, Ukraine. On the second occasion, before the European tour in 2009 when this album was recorded, there were only two days of rehearsal before the first show; and one of them was lost because almost half the band got stuck in transit (Tun Daisy, Per-Ake Holmlander, Steve Swell, and Mikolaj Trzaska, performed last on a bill of the opening night of concerts in Krakow at Alchemia, making it just in time to go on stage. Mikolaj formed a group out of this quartet because the music went so well that night, called Inner Ear, which went on tour in Poland a year later. Maybe that lineup is a bit cursed— half of the band showed up too late to play on the opening night of its December tour— Tim and Steve were stuck in transit again, this time for 13 hours at the Munich airport due to snow…).

So, like the Woody Herman album mentioned above, this recording documents the sound of a group in transition. The near lack of rehearsal time meant that my original approach to writing for the Resonance Ensemble, which was fairly complex and an extension of the work that I had done with the Territory Bands, needed to be thrown out the window. To solve time constraint problem, I developed a modular system of composition— specific thematic material that could be taught quickly, and that could be resequenced and intercut with different predetermined sonic environments and improvisational strategies before each performance; the set list became the tune— different orders of themes, different improvisers creating the links to the next areas of development. This kept the music spontaneous and easy to learn. The strategy was extremely successful, throughout the tour it was possible to try different soloists or collectives on different parts of the components at every performance. All of the musicians (what a band!) rose to both the challenge of the music and the insanity of being in a small bus together riding from Poland to Italy to Hungary to Poland to Ukraine to Poland… It was an amazing trip, seven concerts in eleven days by the full ensemble, which culminated with the show in Gdansk, documented on this album. That concert wasn ’ t definitive, no performance of music based on improvisation ever is, but it was a definite highlight in the Resonance Ensemble ’ s career so far—more than 600 enthusiastic people in attendance and a standing ovation that followed the conclusion of the music and the tour. When people ask me why Poland has had such a profound impact on my creative career, I think of nights like one in Gdansk— the music, the musicians, the audience, the experience shared. My sincere thanks must go to Marek Winiarski, who, once again, made it all possible.

Ken Vandermark, Chicago, January 10, 2011


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