Simpatico
Clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Ken Vandermark has such broad tastes that he has played in up to 18 ensembles at the same time, each with a different stylistic focus. TheCrown Royalschurn out gutbucket R&B;, theAALY Triorevisits '60s-informed free jazz, and the Chicago Bridge Unit plays standards from the '50s and '60s. This quintet is where he puts it all together by playing complex original compositions that integrate swinging rhythms, feedback-laden rock textures, and free-form dynamics. Several tunes express afilm noirambience that resonates with the disc's handsome packaging and betrays Vandermark's past as a film major in college, but the band plays them with a gritty pugnacity that is emphatically contemporary. The album's name acknowledges the well-oiled chemistry that the quintet has developed on the job by playing a weekly gig at Chicago's Empty Bottle for over three years. The group negotiates the difficult transitions between Vandermark's complex, colorful horn charts and collectively improvised passages with deceptive ease.--Bill Meyer