Browse by Artist: CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	12 Degrees of Freedom
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 060CD

Taylor (drums, vibes), Mazurek (cornet, piano, bamboo flute). Recorded, mixed and edited by Casey Rice (Designer). Mazurek and guest guitarist Jeff Parker are members of Isotope 217. "Ah, the cry of jazz... Canned press: '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.' Chad & Rob are members of the Chicago Underground Orchestra (one record: Playground on Delmark) and are augmented here by Tortoise/Isotope 217 member Jeff Parker (catch) on a few of the tracks. Recorded alternatingly at the Lunar Cabaret, the James Bond Loft, and WNUR studio during the calendar year 1997." -- Hrvatski.

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	Axis & Alignment
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 106CD

"Axis & Alignment represents the 7th release by the Chicago Underground collective, and 3rd for the duo of Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (percussion). The Duo's last album, 2000's Synesthesia, found Mazurek and Taylor fully integrating elements of electronica and studio manipulation with great success. Axis & Alignment was recorded after a year of extensive touring with Isotope 217 and the recording and release of the Chicago Underground Quartet's debut album. These influences inform the melodic, lively compositions found on Axis & Alignment. Those who have seen the Duo live have borne witness to Chad Taylor's astounding performance on drum kit and vibraphone, which he often plays simultaneously. 'Microexit' leads the album off with one of Taylor's most haunting vibraphone melodies and perfectly segues into the shapeshifting techno-influenced polyrhythms of 'Lifelines', where Mazurek's cornet melody wraps around the percussion. Axis & Alignment is one of the most listenable, yet avant-garde recordings to come from Chicago's fertile Underground."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	In Praise of Shadows
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 168CD

"The 9th Chicago Underground release and the fourth as a Duo, In Praise of Shadows finds cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor returning the focus to improvisation. While In Praise of Shadows is similar to Twelve Degrees of Freedom in concept the record deals with dyad relationships such as tension and release, space and density, sound and silence. It also plays with sonic contrasts, low tone and high tones as well as contrasting approaches juxtaposing free jazz with modern composition."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	Boca Negra
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 228CD

"Boca Negra is the 5th release of the critically acclaimed Chicago Underground Duo and 10th release by the Chicago Underground Collective. As with the previous four Duo records, it contains both composed and improvised music. The recording contains powerful grooves along with ambient sound structures, folk song simplicity and polyrhythmic bursts of energy with lyrical melodic vignettes. It also combines high energy music with slow moving ballads. Boca Negra was recorded in Sao Paulo, Brazil at Rocha Studios making it the first record not created in Chicago. It is also the first record that contains a 'cover', that being Ornette Coleman's 'Broken Shadows'. This record has been three years in the making and took so long to make due partly to both Chad and Rob's frantic touring schedules (Rob is the leader of the Exploding Star Orchestra, Sao Paulo Underground, Mandarin Movie, and more while Chad performs with Iron and Wine, Marc Ribot, and so forth). The title Boca Negra means 'Black Mouth', a term coined in the Tenerife Canary Islands evoking the idea of an endless intake of information and also harks to the mouth of the volcano Tiede. The cover photo of the record was taken at the Dead Sea. Keeping those two things in mind, one of the goals of the record was to present the listener with the familiar in unfamiliar ways. 'Broken Shadows' for instance, has Chad playing the drums and vibraphone simultaneously. He plays just the A section or verse while Rob plays the bridge section or chorus of the tune. The form is repeated over and over but some times the bridge is elongated, sometimes it is shortened and sometimes it is skipped all together, evoking the idea of 'Broken Shadows'. There are improvisations that sound like composed songs in which Chad's mbira and Rob's cornet are played through various filters often times sounding like different instruments all together and composed songs that sound like improvisations of folk songs. 'Confliction' was probably the most difficult song to record. The bass line flows with ease but the time signature varies between 17/8 and 4/4. As with previous records the goal was not to show virtuoso technique, but rather to present the listener with an emotional experience that transcends the idea of genre or label."

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