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  • Burn The Incline

    ALP121

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: Atavistic

    It's hard to praise Ken Vandermark enough. His work with the V5 and his various other projects continues to stun and amaze. His special talent lies not so much in his playing—which by itself projects an amazing amount of sensitivity and power, depending on the occasion. It's more that Vandermark has tremendous ability as a composer and bandleader. His compositions belie an unabashed openness to ideas, their development, and their superimposition. Straight up funk grooves erupt into shrieking noisefests, only to subside into gentle ballad swing.
    The members of the V5 cooperate under his leadership on Burn the Incline to produce these amazing effects: the twin sax lead of Vandermark and Rempis powers forward under the propulsion of the versatile rhythm section of Kessler and Mulvenna. Bassist Kent Kessler gets his own time in the lead, and he uses it to advantage shaping the flow of the music. Guitarist/trombonist (!) Bishop steps into the fray on demand to lend chordal accompaniment, angular guitar solos, or a third lead voice on trombone. While the compositional thrust of any particular piece may specify a melody or imply a mood, the members of the quintet generally have the opportunity to explore their own unique personal vision. It's a near-perfect synergy of structure and freedom. Burn The Incline represents the fourth V5 outing on record, and it documents another leap forward in the maturity of this group. Vandermark fans, and anyone with open ears for that matter, sh...

  • Beat Reader

    ALP184

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: Atavistic

    KV and Chicago's finest fivesome once again team up with Bob Weston to notch out BEAT READER - the quintet's 12th album for Atavistic over the course of the last decade-plus. In as much as one may contemplate the recorded works of Sonic Youth as a genre unto itself, The V5 may now lay claim to such a distinction: existing simultaneously inside AND outside the realm of Jazz.

    Vandermark's compositions have recently become even more guided by his respect for (and sonic interpretations of) the traditional arts. Appropriately, the first 1000 copies of BEAT READER come replete with a full-length bonus disc entitled "The New York Suite"- Ken's compositional tribute to painters (DeKooning, Hoffman, Pollock & Rothko), composers (Brown, Cage, Feldman & Wolff) and improvisers (Cherry, Lacy, Shepp & Taylor) - some of the luminaries and legends that have inspired him over the years.

  • The Color Of Memory

    ALP166

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: Atavistic

    Despite many attempts to compartmentalize it, jazz—like most things—isn’t any one thing. Instead, it’s a broader continuum of artists exploring different areas. Only a relative few actually manage to not only travel along the greater length of that continuum, but actually push its boundaries. Artists who do this are often relegated to relative obscurity—often only appreciated later in life or, worse, after death.

    Now in his early forties, reed multi-instrumentalist Ken Vandermark isn’t exactly a household name to those who think jazz starts and ends with names like Diana Krall and Michael Bublé. Still, in the short space of a dozen years, he’s emerged as one of jazz’s most significant voices. Winner of the 1999 McArthur “Genius” grant—typically awarded to more established artists like Anthony Braxton—he’s rapidly developed a reputation as fearless improviser and progressive compositional thinker. The far-reaching Vandermark 5 is his flagship group, despite representing only a third of the 24 albums he’s released under his own name and the more than fifty recordings by others on which he’s appeared.

    The Color of Memory goes a long way to consolidating Vandermark's vision on a series of eight long-form compositions spread over two discs. While unbridled freedom of expression is a given with Vandermark, as with German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann—with whom he continues to work as part of the Chicago Tentet—it’s clearly directed. There may be passages where one or more so...

  • Airports For Light

    ALP140

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: Atavistic

    The Vandermark 5’s first studio album in two years (and the first waxed with drummer Tim Daisy) further integrates and resolves the potent musical ideas & structural complexities that surfaced on their previous effort, 2001’s experimental Acoustic Machine.

    Superbly saturated to 2” analog by Shellac’s Bob Weston (also at the helm on Spaceways Inc.’s recent Version Soul album), Airports For Light trades in a more palpable, effortless swing than past V5 efforts. Our favorite standard bearers’ mastery over their own post-modern ballads has dramatically increased as well, providing a more confident command of the “quieter” moments & myriad compositional challenges.

    If that’s not enough of an endorsement (and as is now the tradition, inaugurated with 2000’s Burn The Incline): the first 1500 copies of Airports contain a full-length bonus disc documenting The V5 paying tribute to their favorite tunes by jazz monolith Sonny Rollins, including his “Alfie Suite”, recently recorded live by Malachi Ritscher at Chicago’s stalwart Empty Bottle.

    Airports for Light is not to be missed if you’re remotely interested in the future of jazz. It seems clear now that with every record, this remarkable quintet is forging a signature musical vocabulary... crafting a spectacular body of work mindful of the jazz canon’s towering antecedents, while enigmatically becoming theirs alone.

  • Four Sides To The Story

    MW775

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: NotTwo Records

    Please click on "Buy" button to obtain the free copy of this track which is presented courtesy of NotTwo and Vandermark 5.

    NotTwo Records extremely limited, outstandingly lavish 2- LP’s box-set (vinyl only – no CD’s), further pushes limits not only musical boundaries of improvised music but also the whole concept of conceptual package, as recently re-defined by its own issue of "Alchemia" by Vandermark 5. This exquisitely realized set includes 2 separate LP, housed together in a one-of-its-kind unique box with absolutely astonishing covert art. Comprehensive booklet with many personal insights from Ken Vandermark himself, rare pictures, interviews and essays from acclaimed critics, compliment the whole set wich is available exclusively on vinyl.

    "The decision to put the music out on vinyl was considered as a way to provide something for many fans who have asked for material to be issued with that format, and because the head of the label wanted to create and LP project for the quintet, as a special event..."(Ken Vandermark)

  • Alchemia

    MW750

    Artist: Vandermark 5

    Label: NotTwo Records

    Please click on "Buy" button to obtain free downloads of the tracks which are presented courtesy of NotTwo and Vandermark 5.

    "Alchemia" set is a live document of the extraordinary musical event during five nights stand at Alchemia club in Cracow, Poland in March 2004. Limited edition release: all box sets are individually numbered. Each box set includes 12 CDs and booklet with comprehensive essays, interviews and reviews in Polish and English languages. Exquisite packaging includes 3 x 4-disc units, each housed in a different 4-color folio. Absolutely unique design, five different covers and more! Available in CD format only.