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Ken Vandermark

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

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Upcoming Shows

Date Detail Price
Apr24Wed
Ken Vandermark/Nate Wooley Duo
Umass Old Chapel
Amherst, MA 		$7-15
Apr28Sun
Ken Vandermark, Birth
Beachland Ballroom
Cleveland, OH
May9Thu
Dkv Trio: Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler & Ken Vandermark
Kuumbwa Jazz Center
Santa Cruz, CA 		$26.25
Jun1Sat
Ken Vandermark
Tivoli/vredenburg
Utrecht, Netherlands

Discography

Noise Of Our Time

Noise Of Our Time

Intakt Records
2018

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Roadwork 1/Roadwork2/Homework1 (Box Set)

Roadwork...

Audiographic Records
2018

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Collider

Collider

Not Two Records
2017

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Play the music of...

Cracked Anegg
2013

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Impressions Of Po Music

Impressions Of Po...

Okka Disc
2013

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Verses

Dreamusic
2013

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Videos

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