# Ken Vandermark has been exploring and working to expand the possibilities of improvised and composed music in North America and Europe: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/09/22/ken-vandermark-exploring-working-expand-possibilities-improvised-composed-music-north-america-europe-video/
- Published: 2017-09-22T12:25:18+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**22.09. – Happy Birthday !!! For the past 20 years, Ken Vandermark has been exploring
and working to expand the possibilities of improvised and composed music in North
America and Europe.**

Since moving to Chicago from Boston in 1989, he’s performed and recorded in a variety
of contexts, and with many internationally renowned musicians. Past groups of significance
include the NRG Ensemble, the DKV Trio, AALY, FME, the Vandermark Quartet, Spaceways
Inc., School Days, Cinghiale, Witches & Devils, Steam, and Caffeine. Currently, 
the majority of his work as a composer and improviser has been directed toward the
Vandermark 5, Powerhouse Sound, the Frame Quartet, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet,
Sonore, and separate duos with the percussionists Tim Daisy and Paal Nilssen-Love,
the Territory Band, CINC, and Free Fall. Upcoming projects include iTi (with Johannes
Bauer, Thomas Lehn, Paal Nilssen-Love), Lean Left (with Terrie Ex, Andy Moor, Paal
Nilssen Love), a collaboration with the group ZU, and the Resonance Ensemble (an
international group featuring ten musicians from Poland, Sweden, the Ukraine, and
the United States).

In addition to creating music, Ken has made many significant and highly respected
contributions to both the local and international jazz/improvised music scenes through
organizing concerts in Chicago and sponsoring North American tours with various 
ensembles. In 1996, he and writer John Corbett began organizing the Empty Bottle“
Wednesday Night Jazz Series,” concerts that brought musicians from Chicago, North
America, and Europe to audiences on a weekly basis for nearly a decade. Starting
in April 2006, Ken has continued this work by co-directing the “Immediate Sound 
Series” with Mitch Cocanig at the Hideout. Since the fall of 2005 he has also been
a member of Umbrella Music, a musician based group of organizers collaborating in
Chicago. His work as a presenter led to the invitation to act as creative director
for the ACME Festival, a four-day event held in Athens, Georgia, during April, 2004,
which featured concerts and workshops involving 21 musicians from Germany, Norway,
Sweden, and the United States.

##### Awards

 * Was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 1999.
 * One of the “Chicagoans of the Year in the Arts, 1994” (Chicago Tribune, January
   1, 1995) for the Vandermark Quartet
 * Selected as one of the “25 For The Future,” the most significant improvising 
   musicians under the age of 40 by Down Beat Magazine, June 1998
 * in 2004, Ken was named one of the “Musicians Of The Year” by All About Jazz, 
   New York.

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