Frequency Festival: أحمد [Ahmed] & RAGE Thormbones
Schedule
Wed, 25 Feb, 2026 at 08:30 pm
UTC-06:00Location
3111 N Western Ave Chicago IL 60618 | Chicago, IL
![Frequency Festival: \u0623\u062d\u0645\u062f [Ahmed] & RAGE Thormbones](https://cdn.happeningnext.com/events1/banners/5e874eac885e0867b17bc796b593feedd8c58f862371c74df0fb804c1fbb73a8-rimg-w1200-h1200-dcf7f2df-gmir?v=1767859640)
8:30pm.أحمد [Ahmed] is:
PAT THOMAS / piano
ANTONIN GERBAL / drums
JOEL GRIP / bass
SEYMOUR WRIGHT / alto saxophone
[Ahmed] make music:
to listen, dance and think to.
about the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik. Music of heavy rhythm, repetition and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history.
that excavates, re-inhabits and uses a-new the now overlooked documents, and fragmentary plans, of his mid-20th century synthetic vision to produce a new jazz imagination for the 21st century.
Across their numerous releases - beginning with New Jazz Imagination (Umlaut, 2017), and most recently Sama'a [Audition] (Otoroku, 2025) - the quartet of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright work and rework the music of the late Ahmed Abdul-Malik to create stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive music, where profundity and physicality root right back to ecstatic feeling.
Abdul-Malik was a NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic and East African thought, ethics, meanings and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz. [Ahmed] reimagine the notes of Malik as they push for new ground. Melodies respirate, swell, escalate and combust in a driving jazz which yes is technical, yes is accomplished, but ultimately just foot-to-the-floor swings.
- - -
Weston Olencki and Mattie Barbier, trombones
RAGE Thormbones is a low-frequency duo whose work exists at the intersections of “fuck around” and “find out”. Both members, Weston from Berlin and Mattie from Los Angeles, are classically trained trombonists but abandoned that ship a while ago and have been performing as a duo since 2014. They mainly use trombones to produce sculpted masses of high-density sound, carving metallic resonance and subcutaneous tones to make rooms feel really heavy. They aim to shift the role of brass instruments away from vocal virtuosity and more toward their true selves as improvising organic air compressors - physically-modeled synthesis transcribed back into the acoustic domain.
RAGE has collaborated with a range of artists including Clara Iannotta, Kevin Drumm, Sarah Davachi, Michelle Lou, and British pop maverick Scott Walker. They’ve presented work everywhere from Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Darmstadt Summers Courses, Borealis Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, and ISSUE Project Room to their favorite basements/living rooms/warehouses/ crypts, and more recently, as soloists with the Helsinki Philharmonic and the SWR Symphonieorchester.
RAGE Thormbones website [https://ragethormbones.com/ABOUT.php] and instagram [https://www.instagram.com/ragethormbones/?hl=en].
Where is it happening?
3111 N Western Ave Chicago IL 60618, 3111 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60618-6409, United States
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