Matt Ulery to Issue First Live Recording – ‘Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill’ on October 6

Celebrated Bassist and Composer Matt Ulery Announces the Release of His First Live Record, Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill 

Out October 6th on Woolgathering – Release Show/Residency Kickoff at the Hungry Brain on October 6th

Woolgathering Records is thrilled to announce the October 6th release of bassist and composer Matt Ulery’s Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill. This recording captures an electrifying evening of live music from Ulery’s Delicate Charms ensemble, performing at the legendary Chicago institution The Green Mill. Following the ensemble’s eponymous release in October of 2019, 2021’s Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill presents six brand new Ulery compositions interpreted by five masterful musicians that when assembled, create a deeply adept ensemble unparalleled in interplay and dynamic sensibility. Profoundly reflective of the time-period in which the album was recorded, the exultant energy heard here captures an eagerly-awaited evening of live music – a hungrily anticipated night of freedom and creative expression after a disorienting period of imposed solitude due to the global health crisis. In addition, the travel restrictions of the time imposed some changes in the ensemble’s personnel – Ulery is joined here by pianist Paul Bedal, drummer Quin Kirchner, alto saxophonist Greg Ward, and trumpeter James Davis. On the night of release, Ulery will kick off the first outing of his new weekly residency at The Hungry Brain with an album release celebration. Details can be found HERE. 

Photo by Sandy Morris

Ulery reflects: “Just as Chicago was starting to open up in April/May 2021, it seemed like the only live music happening inside was at some of the jazz clubs. The Green Mill was operating with a seated only capacity. While braving the elements, we were all so hungry for live music in a room together, so it was no surprise that the vibe in the room was tangible…We couldn’t imagine replicating the energy in a studio that was created and felt that weekend at the Mill. ” The band played six sets from 8pm to midnight each night for two nights, as Dave Jemilo, the proprietor of the Green Mill, mixed live sound. Performing new material written by Ulery within the year, Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill documents the most spirited takes of the ensemble’s first impressions of these striking compositions. 

The composer explains, “The tunes on this record have long, dynamic forms requiring intense engagement of the musicians at play. I wanted to create something new (to me) that has the composure of chamber music while having the agility through these forms only potent improvisers can bring to the flow… These guys absolutely crushed the new material, all the ink and all the dynamic improvisation that is always woven throughout this music.”

From the album’s very first refrains, the ensemble strikes an acute balance between harmonic intensity, thoughtful nuance and soulful delivery. Ulery’s orchestral genius is apparent when one notes the sheer range of timbre and dynamics that he pulls out of a single quintet – pieces like “We Are Just at the Limit” and “That Hideous Strength” seem to center heavily around the piano while “Oceans Away” and “The Arrival” are driven by the ensemble’s steadfast horn section. “Consumer of Time” makes ample use of Ulery’s stellar bass playing, before evolving into a true ensemble piece. These changes in density make for a diverse and exciting listening experience.

This live release acts as a vibrant follow-up to Ulery’s 2019 release Delicate Charms which garnered international acclaim. Hrayr Attarian of Chicago Jazz Magazine noted “The mellifluous and intricate Delicate Charms is thought-provoking and charmingly sophisticated. It is novel, complex yet accessible, which, together with its singular style, are the makings of an instant classic.” Michael Ambrosino wrote, for 33Third: Best of 2019, “By the end of the album you’ll realize this is Matt Ulery’s harmonic world, and we just live in it.” Delicate Charms Live at the Green Mill transports listeners into Ulery’s immersive harmonic world within the stirring, irreplaceable atmosphere of a live performance.

1. We Are Just At The Limit 07:05

2. Oceans Away 11:07

3. The Arrival 14:43

4. Undertow 08:58

5. That Hideous Strength 07:15

6. Consumer Of Time 13:36

Greg Ward | alto saxophone

James Davis | trumpet

Paul Bedal | piano

Quin Kirchner | drums

Matt Ulery | double bass and compositions

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Paul Bedal - Cerulean Stars (2021 Bace Records)

On Cerulean Stars, classical leanings and jazz formalism intersect with the post-freedom aesthetic of Chicago’s storied avant-garde. But don’t expect some sort of dialectical mashup; you won’t have to confront some split-personality collision of opposing forces. Instead, pianist Paul Bedal and company have seamlessly blended their diverse experiences, investing his fully structured compositions with liberating energy. He provides the blueprint, and his cohorts color outside the lines.

“It’s amazing to have musicians like Nick, Matt, and Charles with me,” Bedal says, referring to the members of this quartet – the same lineup that recorded his previous album, In Reverse. “They already have such a strong presence of their own, leading their own groups, that I’m excited to have them melding into this music. I think the album would come across as totally different with other sets of players, and I just like this kind of edge that Nick and Charles bring to it.”

That would be altoist Nick Mazzarella and percussionist Charles Rumback, who spend most of their time on the outskirts of the jazz mainstream. Even when such artists travel “back into town,” they usually can’t help but express lessons they’ve learned while away; and when they adapt those lessons to the music at hand, the sparks can fly.

Mazzarella’s work on Cerulean Stars may surprise listeners who know him primarily as a post-freedom improviser, ensconced on the busy and influential Chicago avant-garde landscape. He has appeared in ensembles led by new-music giants Ken Vandermark and Mike Reed; in duos with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Tim Daisy; and leading or co-leading several small ensembles. But the saxophonist (who has appeared on some 35 albums to date) has recently expressed a desire to move toward more structured formats – his original love – and Cerulean Stars, like its predecessor, serves as a showcase for this side of his artistry. In return, Mazzarella’s intense adventurism, buoyed by his neon tone, lights Bedal’s compositions from within.

For one example, turn to the opening track, “Iris,” an off-kilter melody that reflects the writing of Keith Jarrett, one of Bedal’s main influences. The melody rides atop a complicated, unorthodox harmonic scheme, and even months after the recording, Bedal remains impressed with Mazzarella’s approach to soloing on these chords – “especially some of the ways he tackled the harmonies, which I don’t think many other people would do around here,” Bedal says. “It’s kind of like sheets of sound, but it’s still handling all the harmonies.”

“Iris” also provides a fine introduction to Charles Rumback, Mazzarella’s fellow traveler on Chicago’s contemporary music scene, which boasts a fluidity that allows and even impels improvisers to move freely among genres. His resume includes several highly-regarded albums under his own name, as well as recordings by the groups Stirrup and Colorist, saxophonists Caroline Davis and Dustin Laurenzi, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Lightbox Orchestra. Rumback’s style emphasizes texture and nuance. Rather than barge and bash with untrammeled force, he fills his playing with nuanced colors and novel beats, which seep into the nooks and crannies of his fellows’ improvisations. On “Iris,” his steady beat creates an interior counterpoint to the rhythm of the melody: an idea from the edge? Whatever its origin, it adds complexity to the tune, and particularly to Bedal’s solo, which drops pieces of the theme like bread crumbs for the listener to follow.

Balancing all this is Matt Ulery, whose reputation as a composer – of jazz tunes, art songs, jazz-folk hybrids, big-band charts, orchestral works, and cinematic themes in search of a movie (among others) – almost overshadows his versatility as a bassist. His adaptability has allowed him to collaborate with the GRAMMY-winning classical ensemble Eighth Blackbird on the one hand, and hip-hop/jazz instigator Makaya McCraven on the other; he has also led 10 wide-ranging albums of his own. Bedal considers Ulery an inspiration for his own writing: “Just listening to Matt’s music, and recently playing in a lot of his groups, made me try to write things that I know the players would appreciate,” Bedal notes.

The pianist’s relationship with Ulery and Rumback stretches back nearly a decade, giving these disparate artists the chance to establish a comfort level – an ease, but without complacency – that becomes one of the disc’s real joys over repeated hearings. Since 2016, this rapport has encompassed Mazzarella as well, and it plays a vital role in Bedal’s compositions: deceptively challenging songs that sound less knotty than they ought to, thanks to Bedal’s ingenuity and to the tight mesh of the band.

Bedal gravitates toward pure melody, as befits a pianist who cites not only Jarrett but also Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, and especially Bill Evans among his jazz heroes. But the clear-cut forms of Thelonious Monk’s compositions are another touchstone, along with light touches of Latin rhythms, which he picked up while studying at University of Miami (Florida), and which reinforced his early exposure to the infectious drive of pianist Michel Camilo, a favorite of Bedal’s musician father. Hints of the Caribbean show up on “Citrine,” but Bedal and Rumback employ this element with extreme subtlety. It isn’t garishly slapped onto the tune, but rather infused into the performance’s DNA, where it becomes one of many strands.

On “Panorama” and “Compass,” two of his more recent compositions, Bedal chose to set certain parameters rather than let the song come to him. “Panorama” builds upon varying permutations of the opening strains, which culminate in the ascending/descending motif first heard fully at 00:30; the ebb and flow of these permutations creates a swirling momentum during the solos that follow. On “Compass,” Bedal devised a formula to determine the intervals guiding the movement of the bass line, and then constructed the chord progression upon that. The piece has a majestic sweep epitomized by Mazzarella’s soaring solo – it mixes lyrical stretches with fluttering flights – and a piano solo of particular depth.

Bedal shines again on “Summer Fade,” the melody of which finds commonground with both Keith Jarrett and another longtime favorite of Bedal, the Armenian-born pianist Vardan Ovsepian. Ovsepian’s compositions tend to be more self-consciously pianistic, and that influence figures in Bedal’s solo, which emphasizes the interaction between left- and right-hand movement; after that, Mazzarella channels some inner Coltrane (and a bit of Eddie Harris’ highly evolved funk, too). The album concludes with the aptly titled “Free,” a slow-moving lullaby underscored by Rumback’s chittering brushwork, which leads to a section of unstructured improvisation.

That leaves only the brooding mystery of the title track, which at first recalls the main theme from the “Harry Potter” films. Its clockwork melody would seem to offer the tightest restrictions for improvising of any of these tracks. But the tune opens up into a full-blooded swinger, as Ulery and Rumback propel the melody’s stutter-step rhythm into an asymmetrical but irresistible force. “It started out as more of a piano piece,” Bedal says, “and then I kind of fleshed it out for the group.” That makes “Cerulean Stars” the outlier, since Bedal has so clearly conceived most of this repertoire for the quartet as a whole. But it speaks to that very wholeness – the valence that binds this band together – that this one fits right in. NEIL TESSER

1. Iris 06:27

2. Cerulean Stars 07:33

3. Citrine 05:59

4. Panorama 07:32

5. Compass 06:33

6. Summer Fade 06:33

7. Free 04:21

Paul Bedal - piano/compositions

Nick Mazzarella - alto saxophone

Matt Ulery - double bass

Charles Rumback - drums

Recorded at Pro Musica by Ken Christianson on January 20th, 2020

Artwork and design by Marine Tempels Black

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Quin Kirchner - Live at Pro Musica (March 2021 Astral Spirits)

Live at Pro Musica was recorded just over a year ago on March 1, 2020. While it seemed almost routine at the time to gather together in a small space for an intimate afternoon concert, this recording soon stood as an artifact of a very different time. Each one of the musicians involved has since remarked on how great a memory the show has become, and it has helped us all get through a troubling year to be able to look towards the future with hope for more experiences just like it on the horizon. LONG LIVE LIVE MUSIC!

-Quin

 This concert was the first-time meeting of this particular quartet, a group of musicians who until then had all played together many times in various settings but never in this configuration. Ward and Kirchner having worked together for over a decade, first in the group blink. and then in Ward's first Quartet, Fitted Shards, continued to share stages regularly. Ulery and Kirchner had played together for years in Kirchner's long-working 5 piece as well as in countless other bands, including Ward's latest project, Rogue Parade, and Ulery's own Delicate Charms (with Ward). Bedal had joined Ulery and Kirchner as the main house pianist at their weekly jam session for over 2 years while also choosing Ulery for his own Quartet and joining Kirchner in Ulery's brass band project, Pollinator. And yet, even with all of those connections and many more to list, the performance in this recording was and remains to be an entirely unique experience for everyone.

It was the final concert in a week-long Chicago festival called Chopin In The City, curated by singer and presenter Grazyna Auguscik. While the festival invites musicians from across various stylistic genres to present their own original music, it also aims to honor the legacy of the great pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin, native of Auguscik's home country of Poland. It was for this reason that Kirchner decided to bring arrangements of two Chopin Nocturnes to the band, and attempt to showcase the great composer's work through a context of their own.

On the afternoon of Sunday, March 1st, 2020, an enthusiastic and attentive audience packed into the intimate surroundings of the Pro Musica showroom in Chicago, completely unaware of how unusual such an act would soon become. Revered audio specialist and recording engineer, Ken Christianson, the owner and founder of Pro Musica, arranged his trademark AKG stereo pairs in front of each member of the band to capture every moment in startling detail, especially the house grand piano which has been played and recorded countless times in the space by many of Chicago's greatest pianists. The results are an incredibly dynamic and detailed reproduction of the performance allowing the listener to feel as though they might be inside that very space sharing in every moment with both the band and the audience.

In addition to the two Chopin arrangements, the group presented a varied repertoire that included extended renditions of both David Murray's tribute to Albert Ayler, "Flowers for Albert," and the meditative piece "Ababcas," by Paul Motian. Alongside those stand a fiery version of Ward's "We Are Still Here" and a delicate rendition of Kirchner's "Lucid Dream" from his latest album, The Shadows and The Light.

1. Intro/Flowers for Albert 13:35

2. Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor 08:51

3. Abacas 07:00

4. We Are Still Here 08:38

5. Lucid Dream 04:52

6. Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1 08:07

Greg Ward - Alto Saxophone

Paul Bedal - Piano

Matt Ulery - Bass

Quin Kirchner - Drums

Recorded live at Pro Musica in Chicago as part of the 4th Annual Chopin In The City Festival. March 1, 2020 at 3pm.

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Ken Christianson

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Paul Bedal - Mirrors (BACE RECORDS 2018)

"Mirrors" is Chicago based pianist Paul Bedal's second album as a leader and presents a selection of compositions written from 2015 to 2016. On this recording Paul features Jean Caze (trumpet), Caroline Davis (alto saxophone), Dion Kerr (double bass) and Matt Carroll (drums). The band formed as a combination of his closest collaborators, playing a run of shows in Miami and New York in January of 2016. This effort culminated with a recording at Michael Brorby's "Acoustic Recording" in Brooklyn, NY.

Jean Caze - Trumpet

Caroline Davis - Alto Saxophone

Paul Bedal - Piano

Dion Kerr - Upright Bass

Matt Carroll - Drums

1. Aura 05:38

2. Fall Rose 04:47

3. Glendale 07:55

4. Miami Feels 06:18

5. Modicum 04:55

6. Six Across 06:06

7. Titian Sun 04:20

Compositions by Paul Bedal (BMI)

Recorded by Michael Brorby

Mixed by Dan Pierson

Mastered by Paul Bedal

Artwork by Stephanie Benhaim