Available Formats:
CD Digital Stream
Description
Audiographic Records is excited to announce the release of Ken Vandermark’s newest album, a double CD entitled A Living Poets Group. It combines four extraordinary suites of music composed by Vandermark featuring performances by a sextet that includes critically acclaimed Chicagoans: Josh Berman (cornet), Erez Dessel (keyboards), Lily Finnegan (drums), Nick Macri (electric & acoustic bass/electronics), and Beth McDonald (tuba/electronics). In addition, readings by three key contemporary poets- Ed Roberson, Kai Ihns, and Ken Taylor- are interspersed between the suites.
Vandermark created a completely new compositional system for this ensemble. In addition to utilizing the modular construction employed by his group, Edition Redux, the methodology allowed him to superimpose parts from one piece onto another. This has created the possibility for each composition to stand alone, be collaged, and/or stacked, which gives an extraordinary number of permutations to the written material- a music that has been influenced by the histories of free jazz, funk, and post-punk. All the musicians involved have extensive history together as improvisers, working in many different musical configurations through the years. Those experiences and knowledge have been brought to the fore with the A Living Poets Group project.
Recorded live at the legendary Green Mill in Chicago on August 1st and 2nd of 2025, this unique combination of six sets of improvised music introduced by the poetry of Roberson, Ihns, and Taylor was presented to a standing room only crowd on both nights. The recordings highlight the impact that Duke Ellington, the Miles Davis Cellar Door Sessions, Cecil Taylor’s early period, The Fall, Can, music of 1970s Ethiopia, and The Black Artists Group have had on Vandermark’s current ideas.
This double CD includes a sixteen-page booklet of liner notes, photographs (by Tim Schmoll), and transcriptions of the three poems included on these recordings, with a cover by visual artist, John Sparagan. A Living Poets Group will be officially released by Audiographic Records as a limited-edition album of 500.
Label: Audiographic Records
Released in:
2026
Shipping from: Chicago
