Umbrella Festival forecast: torrents of new jazz this weekend

Roscoe Mitchell (hothouse.net)

As I suggested earlier this week, the Umbrella Music Festival has enough edgy sounds to contravene stuffing them all into one preview. With any luck, you managed to catch at least one of the dozen or so performances that have already taken place. Now comes the main event, in the form of a moveable three-ring circus on the north side of town – all of which host Umbrella Music shows throughout the year.

The big news involves the absence of trumpeter Bobby Bradford: an apparently minor injury suffered last weekend forced him off the Umbrella lineup. The bigger news involves his replacement, as the extraordinary reedist Roscoe Mitchell – an original member of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – arrives from California in Bradford’s stead.

Tonight’s sets take place at Elastic at 2830 N. Milwaukee (right above the fine Friendship Chinese restaurant, for those into one-stop dining and digging). Opening at 9 PM is the New Horizons Quartet led by the powerful Chicago saxophonist Ernest Khabeer Dawkins, an AACM veteran who has led one or another lineup under the New Horizons rubric for more than three decades. The current band includes trombonist Steve Berry (who joined the band in 1980) along with two of the younger generation’s truly lionhearted artists, bassist Junius Paul and drummer Isaiah Spencer.

Matthew Shipp (Frances Pfieffer)

At 10 PM, Matthew Shipp presents a set of solo piano. With the thick textures he creates from intersecting lines and his freely structured improvisations, Shipp once inspired the inevitable comparisons to Cecil Taylor. But Shipp prefers a dark pointillism, and his solos have a distinct form and logic quite his own. On his excellent upcoming solo-piano disc 4D (due in January on Thirsty Ear), he’s added standards to his repertoire, such as a spiky, rubato “Autumn Leaves.” As you’d expect, these ain’t exactly your granddad’s golden oldies.

To close, Roscoe Mitchell leads a quartet with saxist (and Umbrella Music principal) Dave Rempis, featuring bassist Junius Paul and the dynamically charged drummer Frank Rosaly. Approaching 70, Mitchell remains a marvel, as proved by his appearances at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival Mitchell. He continues to rigorously redefine the capabilities of his multitude of saxes and clarinets, via jaggedly lyrical improvisations of depth and energy.

Saturday the action moves to the Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia), with a 9 PM opener from Vox Arcana. This surprisingly versatile trio, which lives at the intersection of new jazz and contemporary classical music, comprises the liquid-toned clarinetist James Falzone, the percussive cellist (and electronicist) Fred Lonberg-Holm, and the exquisitely melodic drummer Tim Daisy. Next up is the band People Places & Things, led by another Umbrella Music principal, Mike Reed; their album Proliferation was (IMO) the best Chicago disc of 2008. For this performance, the superb alto saxist Greg Ward returns from his new home, New York, and Roscoe Mitchell again subs for the injured Bobby Bradford. (CORRECTION: Reed will actually be leading his band called Loose Assembly, an excellent but quite different ensemble from his People Places & Things. -- NT)

The Hideout night concludes with the Chicago debut of Akira Sakata, the Japanese saxophonist and botanist. That’s right – botanist. Sakata studied marine biology before entering music, and has retained that interest by becoming a recognized expert on the Japanese water flea known as Mijinko. He has both written on and appeared in documentary films about this creature, in the process earning a special commendation from the Plankton Society of Japan. (No joke.) As a saxophonist, Sakata has channeled both Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders; this came in handy in the mid-80s, when he worked with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson in the band Last Exit. He’s joined by three Chicagoans, drummer John Herndon and guitarist Jeff Parker (best known for their work in Tortoise), and bassist Nate McBride.

Since the festival finishes up at the Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont), it will feel a bit like every other week: the Brain is the site of Sunday-night performances in the weekly Transmission Series of new-music programs. A two-horn quartet called Head With Wings (unknown to your Jazz Examiner) performs at 9 PM. At 10, it’s saxist Akira Sakata (see above) leading his trio Chikamorachi in their local debut – this despite the fact that the band comprises two Americans, Darin Walker on bass and Chris Corsano on drums.

For the UMF finale, the prolific reedist and peripatetic bandleader Ken Vandermark has assembled Topology. This all-star Chicago nonet plays his arrangements of compositions by Joe McPhee, who’ll appear with the ensemble. In the 60s and 70s, McPhee emerged as a versatile and exhilarating multi-instrumentalist (playing reeds and brass), particularly through his recordings for the Hat Hut label in Switzerland. Since then he has continued to perform brilliantly while also forging a distinctive path as composer and conceptualist. Vandermark has always mentioned McPhee as a primary influence on his own work, so this makes a perfect cap for the weekend: one of Chicago’s leading improvisers paying homage to one of the music’s creative touchstones.