Matt Ulery
Fri 9/19 and Sat 9/20, 9 PM, the Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, greenmilljazz.com, $12.
In the last few years Chicago bassist and composer Matt Ulery has emerged as one of the most sophisticated, prolific, and versatile figures in town, leading the postbop quintet Loom and composing elegant chamber music for a circle of musicians including members of Eighth Blackbird and the singer Grazyna Auguscik—both of whom appear on his new album In the Ivory (the third of his LPs to be released on Greenleaf Music, the label owned by trumpeter Dave Douglas). In advance of album-release concerts September 19 and 20 at the Green Mill, I asked him how he navigates between the jazz and composed-music worlds. —Peter Margasak
You’ve switched back and forth between more jazz-focused work with Loom and largely notated compositional efforts, although they seem to increasingly bleed into one another. How do you differentiate these endeavors? Would you like to erase any lines between them?
I’ve found creative momentum in pursuing multiple projects simultaneously as a bandleader as well as a collaborator or sideman. Most often when I get to make music, it’s playing bass (upright or electric) in an accompanying role across many diverse genres. Bass and its role in a rhythm section can be very subtly powerful in helping to shape the dynamic and style of a sound, especially when the music is more “open.” Having the opportunity to play this role in a countless number of bands and styles has helped give me insight into the compositional process of carefully crafting arrangements where the energy, provided by the musicians, has potential to flow between musical moments and events. When you know who you are writing for and can appreciate the history and musical trust between you, you can know more specifically how much or how little information you can or need to provide them in the written music.
Do you prefer to be viewed as a composer or a bassist? Or does it matter?
I see composing and bass playing as different tools or methods of having a musical experience. Being a bassist means to be an improviser. Composition is improvisation with more of an editing process. I guess it depends on how one prefers to talk about it. It’s all the same to me.
Do you feel that living and working in Chicago has helped or hindered getting established as a composer and bandleader?
It can be a daunting task to develop and present your own art/music/band independently anywhere. It’s hard to say if being based in Chicago helps or hinders becoming a more established composer or bandleader, but I’ve personally found that the practice of finding the joy in all musical situations with (hopefully) good people and good musicians is the right path to longevity. Being honest about the music you decide you want to make as a leader seems like the best policy. Chicago may not be as much on the “world stage” in some people’s eyes, but many of the musicians who reside here are my favorites.
Wandelweiser is an international collective of composers who find beauty in music that has been pared down to silence and simple gestures. They share with minimalists an appreciation for reduction, but rather than get hung up on repetition, their compositions express an unfixed, open quality; after all, wandel is the German word for change. Wandelweiser scores might consist of suggestive text rather than conventional notation, and the resulting music freely incorporates environmental sounds, unorthodox playing techniques, and passages of unabashed tonal beauty.
Banks
10/7, 9 PM: Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203, metrochicago.com, 18+, sold out
For a decade, Red Scare Industries has been home to a very specific kind of gruff, adult-size pop-punk—if you’re rubbed the wrong way by the title of the label’s new compilation, Red Scare Industries: 10 Years of Your Dumb Bullshit, there’s a good chance you haven’t acquired a taste for that sound. Red Scare’s done a good job of owning its niche with help from bands such as anthemic Wyoming outfit the Lillingtons and brooding local group the Methadones, and those two are helping the label celebrate its ten-year anniversary in its adopted hometown—founder Tobias Jeg uprooted the label from San Francisco back in 2007 partially because co-honcho Brendan Kelly (of Lawrence Arms) lives here. Kelly is helping anchor the weekend-long bash, performing a solo acoustic set at Gman Tavern (aka the Gingerman) and headlining at the Metro as part of the original lineup of local supergroup the Falcon. Red Scare is still finalizing its plans for the minifest, which includes acoustic sets at Gman on Fri 10/24 and Sun 10/26. —Leor Galil
This show has been canceled.
