Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble: Ken Vandermark, Horne, Frerck, Gonzalez, Cook

Ken Vandermark is an avant-garde composer, improviser, and saxophonist/clarinetist, awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, whose work as both performer and organizer has been central to Chicago’s experimental music scene since the early 1990s and has extended across North America, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Ethiopia. In 2024, he was invited to Austin for the inaugural No Idea Residency, a recent initiative of the nearly two-decade-running No Idea Festival, where he led a quintet with some of Texas’s most forward-thinking musicians: Jonathan Horne, Matthew Frerck, Stefan González, and Kory Cook. That ensemble now returns as the Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble for a Texas tour.

Doors 7:00 pm
Music 7:30 pm
$20 presale

KEN VANDERMARK

Moved to Chicago from Boston in 1989 and has been a central figure in the city’s experimental music scene since the early 1990s. A MacArthur Fellow (1999), he has recorded across a wide range of contexts with leading improvisers including Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata, Sylvie Courvoisier, Hamid Drake, Getachaw Mekuria, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Ikue Mori, and Nate Wooley, among many others. His current work spans projects such as Edition Redux, Lean Left, DKV Trio, and Entr’acte, alongside solo performance. He co-founded Catalytic Sound in 2012 and directs the organization, launched Audiographic Records in 2014, and co-curates the Option series at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio.

JONATHAN HORNE

Austin-based self-taught guitarist whose work moves fluidly across improvised, experimental, and rock contexts, with extensive touring across the U.S., Europe, and South America. He performs with groups including The Young Mothers, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s (Exit) Knarr, Water Damage, Thor & Friends, and his Norway-based band Horne, and collaborates in numerous international ensembles. His work has brought him into collaboration with artists such as Joe McPhee, Rob Mazurek, Chad Taylor, Jaimie Branch, and Mette Rasmussen, among many others.

MATTHEW FRERCK

A North Texas–based bassist working across jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music. His energetic approach has led to collaborations with artists including Henry Threadgill, Aaron Dilloway, Ursula Oppens, and Elliott Levin, and to projects such as Trio Glossía. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, he remains active in underground music circles while also teaching orchestra at the middle school level.

STEFAN GONZÁLEZ

Drummer, vibraphonist, percussionist, and vocalist deeply embedded in the creative music lineage of North Texas. A member of the family trio Yells at Eels with their late father Dennis Gonzalez and brother Aaron, they have since developed a wide-ranging practice across projects including The Young Mothers, the Dennis Gonzalez Legacy Band, Trio Glossía, and Fire Life Trio. González has collaborated with a broad spectrum of improvisers, including Joe McPhee, Alvin Fielder, Mars Williams, Wendy Eisenberg, and Ken Vandermark.

KORY COOK

A drummer who works across free improvisation, jazz, and experimental music as a performer and collaborator. He co-leads the duo The Whale and performs with Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country, while contributing to a wide range of ensembles and recording projects. His past collaborations include Eugene Chadbourne, Roky Erickson, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Arthur Brown. In addition to performing, Cook is active in radio programming and arts education, supporting both the history and ongoing evolution of jazz.

porous sonorous is an artist-run concert series for other musics and further sounds, flowing sporadically and itinerantly across North Texas. It is shaped by a long-standing involvement with The Wild Detectives, forged from half the ashes of Molten Plains, and woven through shifting currents of past and present collaborations with fellow artists, organizers, and venues of different kinds.

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