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IMPROVISE! Jazz Great Ken Vandermark
And Company Bounce Into Athens
S imply put. The DKV Tno delivers a style of jazz that rocks.
Formed in 1994 in Chicago under the guidance of woodwind
player Ken Vandermark. the trio—consisting of Vandermark.
drummer Hamid Drake and Kent Kessler—developed a particularly
spontaneous feel to its approach to music and quickly established
itself as a leader in the modem resurgence of the Chicago avant
garde community.
Reed player Vandermark. 36. was born in Rhode Island and
raised in Boston, where he hist picked up the trumpet in the fourth
grade. He switched to tenor saxophone in middle school and later
adopted the bass clarinet and clarinet as well. His father, an avid
jazz buff, helped expose him to the music of Charlie Parker.
Thelonious Monk and numerous others. After attending him school,
he relocated to Chicago in 1989. In 1992. he assembled the
Vandermark Quartet, a free jazz ensemble featuring violinist,/ gui
tarist Daniel Scanlan, bassist Kent Kessler, and percussionist
Michael Zerang. The band landed a weekly gig at the local HotHouse
Club and began drawing larger crowds. By 1995, the Chicago lmpro-
visational community was experiencing a full-blown renaissance,
with Vandermark as the scene's linchpin, thanks to his tireless work
in a senes of projects including the NRG Ensemble, the Flying
Luttenbachers, Caffeine, Cinghiale, Signal To Noise Unit, the Steel
Wool Trio. Witches & Devils, Barrage Double Tno and the Crown
Royals. By 1997, however, he vowed to cut back his schedule to
focus his energies into just three outlets—the Vandermark 5, Steam
and The DKV Trio.
Drummer Hamid Drake is an acclaimed artist who has collabo
rated with the likes of Bill Laswell, Pharaoh Sanders, the late Don
Cherry and such reggae acts as the I-Tals and the Heptones. Bassist
Kent Kessler anchors numerous Chicago ensembles in addition to his
work with Peter Brotzmann and Mats Gustafsson.
Vandermark was recently awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a
5265,000 "genius grant," placing him in the company of Ornette
Coleman and Anthony Braxton. The youngest musician ever
accorded this honor. Vandermark has lately gone into overdrive pro
moting and developing the thriving music scene in Chicago and on
the world stage.
These are musicians of the highest caliber, expanding the very
notions of group improvisation and "jazz " that most elusive of
musical styles—challenging at turns with moments of sublime
beauty and infused with dialogue seldom realized in today's scene.
Vandermark: "If you meet the demands of the music and its nat
ural direction, whether composing or improvising, the rest of the
elements involved—from what kinds of tools to develop as a player,
to the success of how well you communicate 'with an audience—will
fall into place. Playing improvised music is not a license to do
whatever I want;' there is an important responsibility to focus on
the needs of the situation at the highest level of musical discipline.
This leads to decisions that help keep the integrity of the material." j
Erik Hinds ;
The DKV Tno will be conducting workshops on the VGA campus on
Thursday. Feb. 17 and Fnday. Feb. 18. Free and open to the public.
For more info, call Julie Powell. 549-8702 or jpowell@negia.net
WHO: DKV Trio
WHERE: UGA Dantz Center For New Music
" WHEN:Friday, Feb. 18, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE!
After 10pm
Every Night
140 EAST WASHINGTON ST.
549-5999
THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT
Bassist Jimbo Wallace Unravels At The Mouth
WHO: The Reverend Horton Heat, Hank Williams III
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 18
HOW MUCH: $10
"Every band steals from every band in rock and roll," says bassist
Jimbo Wallace of Reverend Horton Heat. "We've become more confi
dent over the years and we've been able to incorporate our influ
ences over the years and do some-
thing energetic with it. I think
rock and roll should be threat
ening; parents should be afraid."
Wallace, a 39-year-old
Houston native, has slapped the
upright bass with The Rev
through six albums and eleven
years of almost non-stop touring.
"I think we do it in a dif
ferent way than these other
bands because we have so many
influences—from punk rock and
metal to rockabilly," explains
Wallace. "There a lot of tradition
alists out there who do the
straight rockabilly as well as the
straight swing bands. We've got a
little of everything and it's never
quite the same. It's always got to
have an edge to it."
Guitarist Jim Heath (AKA
"Reverend Horton Heat") grew up in
Corpus Christi, Texas. He formed Reverend Horton Heat in 1989 (the
clerical moniker was suggested just before a gig by a bar owner in
Deep Ellum, iexas) and honed a highly stylized, redneck preacher
image. Rev. Horton Heat quickly established itself as a gritty and
raucous band that melded the hardest elements of rockabilly and
punk without any of the self-conscious trappings of either genre.
Despite the rockabilly kitsch, the band's recorded material gen
uinely rocks harder than most of its punk and metal contemporaries,
as evidenced by the half-dozen releases on Sub Pop and InWscope
Records. The forthcoming album—a 14-song slab produced by
Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary titled Spend A Night In The Box
(Time Bomb)—may be the Rev.'s most balanced and swaggering col
lection yet offered.
"On the new album, we're getting back tc what we do best—the
more rootsy rock and roll that we started out with," says Wallace.
"It seems like we always try and throw some country in with the
blues and early Elvis type stuff into the mix, too, but it's really a
rockin' record."
As with previous efforts, the
new album avoids studio tricks
and aims for a raw and scathing
"live on stage" sound and feel,
driven by Heath's searing guitar
work and vocal howl as well as
Wallace's clickety-clack slapping
style.
"I guess we just always had
to keep up with Rev.—we had no
choice," laughs Wallace. "I used
to bleed all over myself playing
upright in the early day, but I've
learned better technique over the
years. The whole slap style came
from those old b.ues artists who
didn't always have a drummer."
The razor sharp performances
from each band member are evi
dent on the recordings, but the
band's insanely energetic stage
performances are even more potent
Wallace wastes no time getting ready. "Oh yeah, I get hurt trying to
climb up on the bass or throw it 'round. The older I get, the harder
it is to step up on that thing. It's part of the show, you know. I
think people really seem enjoy the live shows ove r the albums
because it's such a blast of energy."
Ballard Lesemann
Free Depression/Anxiety Screening
Friday, February 18 • noon—4:00 PM
At these 3 locations:
Family Counseling, Inc.
1435 Oglethorpe Avenue; (706) 549-7755
Northeast Georgia Center;
250 North Avenue; (706) 542-8656
For info on screenings
call Dr. Al Clarke at (706) 549-7888
Call for help!
Mental Health Association (706) 549-7888
Mental Health Clinic (706) 542-8S56
After Hour Emergencies (706) 357-9774
WWW.FIGMT THE STIGMA.COM
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FEBRUARY 16, 2000