06.29.06
July 6 Concert with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Torsten Muller, and Michael Zerang
On Thursday, July 6 — one week from the night of this post — Gallery 1412 will host a fine concert of free-improv by Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Torsten Müller (double bass), and Michael Zerang (percussion) — a trio of gifted world-class players with the Chicago nexus in common. The trio will be fresh from gigging at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Show starts at 8 PM and you should definitely go. Gallery 1412 is at 18th and Union, in the same space where the Polestar Music Gallery used to be (as if you didn’t know).
The concert is being produced by Nonsequitur, who have a great extended blog post about the show here.
Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) studied composition with Morton Feldman and Anthony Braxton, and his played-and-recorded-with roster is really unusually diverse — ranging from the cream of the global avant music community (Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn, Paul Lovens, Jim O’Rourke, Jaap Blonk, and Ken Vandermark for starters) to crazy-ass Chicago avant-rock freaks (US Maple, God is My Co-Pilot, The Flying Luttenbachers, and Zeek Sheck, for example) to more mainstream, even downright sensitive groups (Smog and Freakwater, doncha know). I mean c’mon: any cellist who has releases on both Skin Graft and Hat Art and did a little soundtrack work for the Playboy Channel and plays Bach cello sonatas for kicks is worth walking a mile for. Read a fine interview with Fred at the always-excellent Perfect Sound Forever online zine.
Torsten Müller (contrabass) I’ve not personally heard, but I’m very intrigued. Currently (I believe) a Vancouver native, his collaborations are muy impressive: Günter Christmann, Alexander Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Jon Rose, Ken Vandermark, Davey Williams, Ladonna Smith, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, Paul Lovens, and many many others. All of the reviews of him that I’ve gleaned are universally outstanding. He played here in in 2003 at the Seattle Improvised Music Festival with a combo that included the phenomenal Paul Lovens and the very talented Chicagoan I remember well, Jeb Bishop.
Michael Zerang (percussion) is a deserving Chicago institution — the Links Hall Performance Series (which he founded in 1985) and Club Lower Links may not be names that resonnate out here in the sticks, but in combination they really did reshape the Chicago “other” music scene(s) and in turn that/those of the world. Not only that, and not mentioning that he’s a swell and funny guy, he’s also an outstanding percussionist. On the one hand he’s a stalwart of the free-improv scene — collaborating with the likes of Fred Anderson, Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafson, Jaap Blonk — and on the other hand he works frequently with dancers and composes award-winning stage scores for things like a puppet-and-mask version of Frankenstein staged at the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre. I also have very, very fond memories of annual winter solstice drum concerts he and Hamid Drake held — wonderful stuff that included duets with frame drums as well as trap kits. When he’s being lazy he teaches, runs the occasional store-front venue, books concerts, and carves the coolest Jack-o-lanterns you’ve ever seen.
Like I said…go to the show.
