New music composed by Ken Vandermark to celebrate the art and artists of the Monster Roster.

The concert features music inspired by the visual ideas on display in the Monster Roster exhibition at the Smart Museum and by the Stony Island Art Bank’s library of musical ideas—the vinyl collection of the legendary Frankie Knuckles. It deals with a wide range of aesthetic and sonic concerns, incorporating composed and improvised elements in ways that illustrate that sometimes, in order to see the way forward, you need to look back.

Free, but space is limited. Please register in advance. Doors open at 7 pm.

Performing

Ken Vandermark, reeds
Tim Barnes, percussion
Nick Macri, acoustic and electric bass
Lou Mallozzi, turntables, CDs, microphones, mixer
Mars Williams, saxophones

About Ken Vandermark

Born in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 22nd, 1964, Ken Vandermark began studying the tenor saxophone at the age of 16. Since graduating with a degree in Film and Communications from McGill University during the spring of 1986, his primary creative emphasis has been the exploration of contemporary music that deals directly with advanced methods of improvisation.  In 1989, he moved to Chicago from Boston, and has worked continuously from the early 1990s onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe, recording in a large array of contexts, with many internationally renowned musicians (such as Fred Anderson, Ab Baars, Peter Brötzmann, Tim Daisy, Hamid Drake, Terrie Ex, Mats Gustafsson, Elisabeth Harnik, Steve Heather, Christof Kurzmann, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Paul Lytton, Lasse Marhaug, Joe McPhee, Andy Moor, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Paal Nilssen-Love, Eddie Prevost, Eric Revis, Jasper Stadhouders, Chad Taylor, John Tilbury, Nasheet Waits, and Nate Wooley).  

His current activity includes work with Made To Break, Lean Left, Side A, Shelter, Fire Room; duos with Paal Nilssen-Love, Tim Daisy, and Nate Wooley, as well as work as a solo performer. In addition, he is the music director of the experimental Pop band, The Margots, and since June of 2015 has been co-curator of Option, a music series held on a weekly basis at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago.  More than half of each year is spent touring in Europe, North America, Russia, Brazil, and Japan, and his concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed both at home and abroad.  In addition to the tenor sax, he also plays the bass and Bb clarinet, and baritone saxophone. In 1999 he was awarded the MacArthur prize for music.