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Chicago Underground Duo
The Chicago Underground Duo was once asked to describe their music. This is what they said: (The Duo is) "an organic mixture of African, Electronic, Coloristic, Jazz influenced life supporting systematic, non-systematic feeling from two humans trying ever to expand outward and inward for the people and ourselves."
Here is the bio from their first release, "Twelve Degrees of Freedom."
January 15, 1997 was a cold and snowy night in Chicago. At the Lunar Cabaret that evening, two Chicago Underground Orchestra members were beginning to hone their skills as a duo during what they would later describe as a magical evening. Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor are stalwarts on the Chicago Jazz front and have played with myriad artists.
On "Duo", the two meld their various influences and talents to form a free-flowing, moon scaped recording. Taylor started playing professionally in Chicago at the age of fourteen. In 1991, he moved to New York. While in the Big Apple, Taylor performed with Lou Donaldson, Leon Parker, Junior Mance and Mark Turner. In 1993 he helped form the free improvisational group called the Life Ensemble. By 1996, he had decided to return to Chicago to participate fully in the development of the Chicago Underground Orchestra. Since coming home, Taylor has also played and continues to work with Fred Anderson, Ernest Dawkins, Art Ensemble of Chicago bassist Malichi Favors, and Billy Brimfield. Mazurek's tenure in the Chicago music scene spans over ten years. He has performed and recorded with many of the Windy City's leading musicians including Fred Hopkins, Tortoise, Gastr del Sol, Loren Mazzacane Conners and Jim O'Rourke.
Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak descibed Mazurek as having "...taken his playing towards the fringes...the assured muscle of Lee Morgan still pulses through his solos on more swinging material, the piquent phrasing of Don Cherry or the gorgeously abstract smears of Bill Dixon are just as likely to surface-though Mazurek is no mere composite of influences."
Here are some words about the s/t Chicago Underground Quartet record, released 6/01:
This self titled release is the debut as a Quartet for the Chicago Underground collective. In addition to the already established Chicago Underground Duo of Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (percussion), the quartet model features Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Isotope 217) on guitar and Noel Kupersmith (Brokeback) on upright bass. For those familiar with the Chicago Underground Duo’s recordings, Parker and Kupersmith add a lush, organic tone to the proceedings: abstract sonics meet gorgeous melody in this extraordinary sound collage. The Chicago Underground Quartet merges sound from disparate worlds that collide and caress in unexpected ways. From the opening arpeggio figure of "Tunnel Chrome" to the free improvisations of "Sink, Charge, Fixture" to the futuristic moog melody of "Nostalgia." Chicago Underground Quartet weaves sound that pleases. Recorded and Engineered by John McEntire at Soma Studios.
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Chicago Underground Duo al Pinocchio Live Jazz
by Neri Pollastri
Pinocchio Live Jazz Firenze 14.02.2015. Rob Mazurek frequenta spesso il nostro paese e a Firenze in particolare ha una folta schiera di estimatori, creatasi anche grazie al Chicago Underground Duo con Chad Taylor. Il suo ritorno al Pinocchio, perciò, non poteva essere che salutato con entusiasmo, reso tangibile da un'ampia presenza di pubblico che includeva molti tra i più accesi appassionati di jazz della città. Il musicista del New Jersey ...
read moreChicago Underground Duo al Carambolage di Bolzano
by Giuseppe Segala
Piccolo Teatro Carambolage Bolzano 9 febbraio 2015 Lo spazio del Carambolage di Bolzano, piccolo teatro dedicato spesso al cabaret, è ideale anche per la musica. Lo ha dimostrato la pregevole programmazione attuata da Vittorio Albani nell'arco di una decina di anni in cui sono passati tanti paladini del jazz contemporaneo. Lo dimostra la soddisfazione degli stessi musicisti, che avvertono la preziosità di un ambiente piccolo, raccolto, che favorisce lo scambio emotivo più prossimo ...
read moreChicago Underground Duo: Locus
by Troy Collins
For over 17 years Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor have collaborated as the Chicago Underground Duo, a long-running partnership that has served as the core foundation for larger configurations of the group, including Trio, Quartet and Orchestra. The expansive nature of the ensemble's fluctuating personnel and the subsequent diversity of music produced has been a direct reflection of the founding members' varied interests and ensuing career paths.Mazurek's reputation as a bold electro-acoustic sound sculptor is well established, but ...
read moreChicago Underground Duo: Boca Negra
by Chris May
Drummer Chad Taylor's and cornetist Rob Mazurek's intention with Boca Negra is to present the listener with an emotional experience that transcends the idea of genre or label." The principle of inclusiveness starts with the recording location, Sao Paulo in Brazil, and continues through to the album's packaging: the cover shot was taken on the shore of the Dead Sea, while the title, which means black mouth," comes from Tenerife in the Canary Isles (where it was coined to describe ...
read moreChad Taylor & Rob Mazurek: Chicago Underground Duo
by David Adler
Chicago Underground DuoBoca NegraThrill Jockey2009 Rob MazurekSound IsDelmark2009 Chad TaylorCircle Down482 Music2009 No account of American jazz in the '00s would be complete without a thorough look at the Chicago scene. The year 2009 was a good one, with strong recordings from Mike Reed, Josh Berman, ...
read moreChicago Underground Trio: Chronicle
by Nic Jones
Chicago Underground Trio Chronicle Delmark 2007
This DVD marks a break with precedent for Delmark in terms of its content. Whereas their previous titles have documented live performances in the raw with little in the way of visual stimulus outside that of the musicians working, this one is lent a contemplative air through the visual input and direction of Raymond Salvatore Harmon, a man who, if the evidence here is anything to ...
read moreChicago Underground Trio: Chronicle
by Troy Collins
Chicago Underground Trio Chronicle Delmark 2007
Filmed at Chicago's German Cultural center, Chronicle presents the Chicago Underground Trio in a new light, literally. Cornetist/composer Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor have been releasing projects under the banner of the Chicago Underground for almost a decade. While the line-up tends to vary in size, the core duo always remains. Here they are augmented by one--bassist Jason Ajemian, making his first recorded appearance with the group ...
read moreJazz This Week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Chicago Underground Duo, Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
As the final weekend of Jazz Appreciation Month comes into view, there's still plenty to celebrate, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening in and around St. Louis over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, the 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival gets underway with a quartet performance led by pianist and ex-St. Louisan Reggie Thomas and his Michigan State University colleague, bassist Rodney Whitaker, at Jazz at the Bistro. Drummer Montez Coleman ...
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Chicago Underground Dive into the Laptop-Jazz Vortex
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All About Jazz @ Spinner
By Tad Hendrickson
The fusion of jazz and electronics hasn't been a particularly fertile one -- particularly when you consider the possibilities of pairing the agility of improvisation-minded musicians with the infinite possibilities offered by technology, both in the production studio and in the live setting. In the late '60s and early '70s, Miles Davis and producer Teo Macero famously cut and pasted tapes together to create songs with form out of studio jams, but the mercurial Davis moved on ...
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