Upcoming Show: The Chicago Underground Duo at The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City 2/18/10

In what seems to be shaping up to be a Thrill Jockey invasion of Iowa, it has been announced today that coronetist Rob Mazurek’s avant garde jazz vehicle Chicago Underground will be performing at The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City on Thursday, February 18th! This will be the Chicago Underground Duo configuration featuring Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor, who are the two constant members of the group which has recorded and performed as a trio (with bassist Noel Kupersmith) and quartet (with guitarist Jeff Parker of Tortoise) and sometimes as The Chicago Underground Orchestra (with Parker, Bitney and Herndon from Tortoise as well as Sara Smith, Chad Lopes, and Tony Pinciotti). The group started in Chicago borne of a standing improvisation workshop at the notorious jazz venue Green Mill. Since 1998, the collective has recorded 11 albums between the Thrill Jockey and Delmark labels, and their newest album titled Boca Negra will be their fifth as the Duo.

I think that The Chicago Underground Duo is a pretty interesting band configuration as it is just a percussionist and Mazurek on coronet, although they sometimes bring other instruments along for their live show. I’ve never seen this band live before, so I’m hoping to make it to this show. I’ve seen Mazurek’s other project Isotope 217 before (on the 1998 tour with Tortoise). Isotope 217 is less improvisational maybe more like Tortoise in some respects.

The Chicago Underground Duo will be bringing their flavor of avante garde improvisational jazz to The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City on, Thursday, February 18th. Admission will be $8 and the show will start at 9PM. An opening act has yet to be announced.

Click Here to visit Thrill Jockey’s Chicago Underground page where you can stream whole albums from their catalog.

Click Here to visit The Mill Restaurant’s calendar page to get more details on the show.

Click Here to listen to “Spy on the Floor” from Boca Negra.

Chicago Underground Tour Dates (from thrilljockey.com)

Fri    Jan 15    New York, NY     – FONT Festival
Sun    Jan 17    Philadelphia, PA    – International House
Wed    Feb 3    Chicago, IL    – Chicago Cultural Center
Fri    Feb 5    Ann Arbor, MI    – Yellow Barn
Tue    Feb 9    Marfa, TX    – TBA
Wed    Feb 10    Tucson, AZ    – Solar Culture Gallery
Thu    Feb 11    Phoenix, AZ    – Modified Arts
Fri    Feb 12    Los Angeles, CA    – Bootleg Theatre    w/ Pit Er Pat
Sat    Feb 13    Visalia, CA    – Cellar Door
Sun    Feb 14    San Francisco, CA    – Cafe Du Nord    w/ Pit Er Pat
Wed    Feb 17    Omaha, NE    – Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts
Thu    Feb 18    Iowa City, IA    – The Mill Restaurant
Fri    Feb 19    Northfield, MN    – The Cave @ Carleton College
Sat    Feb 20    Chicago, IL    – The Hideout
Sun    Feb 21    Milwaukee, WI    – Woodland Pattern Book Center

Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out 50th Anniversary Legacy Edition Out 5/26/09

One of my all time favorite jazz records is the 1959 Columbia release Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. I have this release on compact disc (not the remaster) and a couple copies on vinyl. Frankly, it is a lot of people’s favorite jazz release– it is one of the best selling jazz albums ever (next to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue also produced by Teo Macero). It has the distinction of having a single that reached the Top 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart– “Take Five” composed by band member Paul Desmond.

2009 is the 50th Anniversary of Time Out, and to celebrate the occasion Sony Legacy is re-releasing it’s 1997 compact disc remaster of the album on May 26th. According to this posting on the Down Beat website, the second disc is made up of previously unreleased performances from The Newport Jazz festival from 1961-1964. So, sadly, no unreleased session outtakes for this release. The unreleased Newport recordings are a nice touch, I suppose but makes the release not worth much more than the 1997 remaster except for the third disc in the release which is a DVD with an interview with Dave Brubeck on Time Out as well as some photographs and an “interactive piano demonstration” (who knows what this is?).

I spent time today trying to find any information on this release other than the paltry little bit that the online retailers have and was not successful. No press release, no mention of the release at the Sony Legacy website (at least at the time of this writing)! So, while it might be nice that they are doing a new packaging of the release, they don’t bother to promote it.

At first glance this really looks like a way for Sony to cash in on the 50th Anniversary of this release.  Unfortunately this is nothing like the Kind of Blue
50th anniversary box with the 180g blue vinyl, the CD, DVD and book that they did last year. I will pick this up because I’m interested to see the interview with Brubeck (who turned 88 last December) and I don’t have the remastered version of Time Out.

Here is the track listing with some session information I found at the excelent jazzdisco.org I haven’t found any place that indicates which Newport Jazz Festival shows the songs are from. I’ll update if I get any details.:

Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out 50th Anniversary Legacy Edition Track Listing

Disc 1:
1. Blue Rondo A La Turk (Album Version) (NYC, August 18, 1959)
2. Strange Meadow Lark (Album Version) (NYC, July 1, 1959)
3. Take Five (Album Version) (NYC, July 1, 1959)
4. Three To Get Ready (Album Version) (NYC, June 25, 1959)
5. Kathy’s Waltz (Album Version) (NYC, June 25, 1959)
6. Everybody’s Jumpin’ (Album Version) (NYC, June 25, 1959)
7. Pick Up Sticks (Album Version) (NYC, August 18, 1959)

Disc 2 (Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1961-1964):
1. St. Louis Blues – (previously unreleased)
2. Waltz Limp – (previously unreleased)
3. Since Love Had Its Way – (previously unreleased)
4. Koto Song – (previously unreleased)
5. Pennies From Heaven – (previously unreleased)
6. You Go To My Head – (previously unreleased)
7. Blue Rondo a La Turk – (previously unreleased)
8. Take Five – (previously unreleased)

Disc 3 (DVD):
1. Dave Brubeck on Time Out
2. Photo Gallery
3. Interactive Piano Demonstration

Wikipedia article on Time Out