Live Jazz in Chicago

Back to All Events AACM Presents: Dameun Strange Tuesday, June 9, 2026 7:30 PM 9:30 PM Google Calendar ICS Acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist Dameun Strange is set to present a series of afrofuturist experiments at Elastic Arts. This performance, supported by Sonic Vanguard, serves as a cornerstone of his AACM composition residency. The evening promises an immersive exploration of sound and sight, featuring a diverse program that pushes the boundaries of traditional performance: Solo Audio-Visual Piece: A dedicated work exploring the intersection of solo instrumentation and synchronized digital media. 4D Visual Score Integrations: Two distinct audio-video pieces utilizing an innovative 4D visual score system. Project | AD: A featured work-in-progress that draws deep inspiration from the life and enduring social legacy of Angela Davis. Through these afrofuturist lenses, Strange continues to investigate the potential for technological integration within the rich tradition of creative improvised music. Project AD | Genesis This work in progress serves as a critical examination of the legacy of Angela Davis, utilizing a 4D visual score to explore themes of liberation and resilience. It represents a continuation of Strange's interest in non-linear storytelling and ritual performance. Helianthus | Sankofa Originally premiered as a Cedar Commission in 2017, Helianthus functions as a ritualistic vehicle for ancestor worship, specifically honoring the matriarchs who raised Strange. The "Sankofa" iteration utilizes the new 4D scoring methodology to create an immersive, interdimensional travel experience for performers and audience alike, moving beyond the linear constraints of traditional staff notation. AquaSonos | Hydrologic Born from Strange's 2019 residency in Senegal, the AquaSonos canon uses graphic notation to explore genetic memory and the African diaspora's relationship with water. This installment, Hydrologic , leverages advanced 4D scoring techniques developed during his residency with the Capitol Region Watershed District in Saint Paul, MN to map complex, recurring rhythmic cycles. Artist Bio Dameun Maurice Strange is a Saint Paul, MN-based sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer renowned for his conceptual chamber and electronic works that delve into stories of the African diaspora through an Afrofuturist lens. His artistic mission is to articulate the beauty and resilience of the Black experience through sound, music, and poetry, drawing on ancestral narratives to bridge the past, present, and future. Strange's innovative sound experiments fuse West African polyrhythms, synthesizers, contemporary jazz harmonies, and found sounds, field recordings, and historic recordings to craft modern Afrofuturist performances that transcend conventional genre boundaries. Previous Previous June 8 Priya Fink's 'The Middle' Next Next June 10 CLEAT Series: BARAS + Jared Kelley 'Irrational Machines'

Back to All Events Improvised Music Series: Sri Perangur's Enargeia, Clark / Rubin + Dessel / Nguyen Thursday, June 11, 2026 8:30 PM 10:30 PM Google Calendar ICS Sri Perangur Photograph: Alice Bortel @alicegrrltakephoto (from upper left, clockwise) Chad M. Clark, Scott Rubin, Maya Nguyen, Erez Dessel Two improvised-music-and-video sets featuring: Chad M. Clark (guitar) and Scott Rubin (video) , plus Erez Dessel (keys) and Maya Nguyen (video) Sri Perangur (he/they) is a violinist, improviser, and composer trained in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) musical tradition. Following in the footsteps of premodern Indian painters, "Enargeia” seeks to imagine rāgas (melodic frameworks) not only as tastes, scents, and textures, but also as characters, ideas, and symbols. 8:30 pm: Sri Perangur’s Enargeia 9:15 pm: Clark / Rubin 10:00 pm: Dessel / Nguyen $15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door About The Artists Sri Perangur (he/they) is a violinist, improviser, and composer trained in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) musical tradition. Nurtured by violin maestros Lalgudi GJR Krishnan and Vittal Ramamurthy, Sri carries forward the elegance and emotional depth of the Lalgudi school of music while blending it with his own explorations of poetry, history, and language. "Enargeia" is a project that celebrates the language of instrumental music. Following in the footsteps of premodern Indian painters, the project seeks to imagine rāgas (melodic frameworks) not only as tastes, scents, and textures, but also as characters, ideas, and symbols. "Enargeia" represents Sri's attempt to test tradition's ability to speak to contemporary senses and sensibilities. Maya Nguyen is a Chicago-based Vietnamese-Russian interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores sound, diasporic making, and lived ambiguity. She maps her own migrations across Hanoi, Moscow, and Chicago by weaving together speech fragments, urban recordings, video, and performance. Erez Dessel is a pianist, composer, and curator living and working in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a BM in jazz piano from the New England Conservatory of Music. Dessel’s work explores the piano as a vehicle for human connection. A primary part of his practice is the history of the instrument as a tool for storytelling and world-building. Scott Rubin is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist, composer, and improvising violist. His work explores the relationships between sound and movement by utilizing analog and digital technology, motion sensors, and live video. Chad M. Clark is a Chicago-based experimental guitarist whose practice expands the instrument into a site of physical inquiry, improvisation, and immersive sound. Attuned to the guitar’s material properties, Clark works with scale as both measure and sensation, moving between finite gestures and seemingly infinite fields of resonance. Tagged: improvised music series Previous Previous June 10 CLEAT Series: BARAS + Jared Kelley 'Irrational Machines' Next Next June 12 CLEAT Series: Duo Riso, SEth Andrew Davis

Back to All Events Improvised Music Series: TV Pow + Open Seki + J0Y feat. Matthew Davis Thursday, June 18, 2026 8:30 PM 11:00 PM Google Calendar ICS TV Pow Matthew Davis Open Seki The experimental electronic heavyweights TV Pow kick off a tour. Matthew Davis performs with solo project on the heels of his recent release Free, ambient duo Open Seki kicks off the evening. 8:30 pm: Open Seki John Biggers - electronics, various instruments Nathan Tucker - electronics, various instruments 9:15 pm: J0Y feat. Matthew Davis Matthew Davis - trombone, electronics, vocals 10:15 pm: TV Pow Michael Hartman - electronics Todd A. Carter - electronics Brent Gutzeit - electronics Formed in Tokyo in 1995 and based in Chicago since 1996, TV Pow is a trio of composers and free improvisers working across experimental electronic music. Working across experimental electronic music and free improvisation, the trio uses samplers, synthesizers, laptops, percussion, invented instruments, turntables, and tape manipulation to create evolving soundscapes that blend electronics, ambient drift, minimalist structures, and field recordings. J0Y. /joi/ noun A profound, long-lasting state of intense happiness, contentment, and inner peace, often arising from connection, purpose, or gratitude. Matthew Davis (J0Y.) is a Chicago-based composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist rooted in the past, working in the present and gazing to the future. His evolving practice incorporates synthesizers, plant-based sound systems, and diverse acoustic instruments to create textured, immersive compositions. His work moves fluidly between structure and spontaneity, creating hypnotic groves, infectious melodies, and cosmic sonic landscapes. A seasoned performer, MD has toured extensively around the world, developing a reputation for captivating, exploratory live sets. His latest album, “ Free ” demonstrates his fierce creativity and instrumental prowess. Open Seki is the duo of John Biggers (Hefty) and Nathan Tucker (SKAM, Wobblyhead, Consumers Research & Development), endeavoring to scratch that undefinable itch through pulse exploration and phased aural stimulation. $15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door Tagged: improvised music series Previous Previous June 16 'The Harbingers' Live Listening Event Next Next June 20 John O'Neill, GS70, existence decay

Back to All Events Improvised Music Series: Tri-Centric Experiencer's Unit, Lion's Head Thursday, June 25, 2026 8:30 PM 10:30 PM Google Calendar ICS Tri-Centric Experiencer’s Unit (L-R: Mark Nagy, Ben Zucker, Fred Jackson, with overlay of Composition No 436 by Anthony Braxton) Cover image of Lion’s Head debut EP ( listen here) Two trios paying homage to the legacies of 70s avant-garde jazz: The Tri-Centric Experiencer’s Unit plays a landmark Anthony Braxton composition; Lion’s Head, named after mentor Richard Davis, interpolates free improvisation with hard-swinging classic repertoire. 8:30 pm: Composition No. 76 by Anthony Braxton, performed by the Tri-Centric Experiencer’s Unit Fred Jackson Jr. - saxophones, flute Mark Nagy - clarinets, saxophones Ben Zucker - vibraphone, trumpet All musicians on voice & little instruments 9:30: Lion’s Head Maggie Cousin - alto saxophone/bass clarinet Henry Ptacek - drums Aden Stier - bass $15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door About The Artists The Tri-Centric Experiencers Unit is an evolving collective of Chicago musicians exploring the creative work of the groundbreaking composer-performer Anthony Braxton. First convened by Ben Zucker for an ensemble performance in 2024 featuring a multilayered rendition of Braxton’s modular, ’trans-idiomatic’ works, for this performance the focus is brought to a single piece: Composition 76, a landmark hybrid of notation, graphics, and improvisation featured on the historic 1977 Arista record For Trio. Expect the unexpected as multi-instrumentalists Fred Jackson Jr ., Mark Nagy , and Zucker bring a multitude of instruments big and small to realize the provocative score, in which trace of every dynamic, experimental music from bebop to Cagean silence to sound poetry might be heard. A collaboration between longtime friends Maggie Cousin, Aden Stier, and Henry Ptacek, Lion's Head seeks to make new improvised music rooted in the language of the jazz avant-garde of the late 60s and early 70s. Lion's Head treats the tradition as a living, urgent material, using the wisdom of their predecessors to navigate our shared here and now. Previous Previous June 23 Julie Meckler, Vee, Otto Rollo Next Next June 26 Elastro: Kristina Warren, Ben Zucker, Nu A.M.

Back to All Events Improvised Music Series: Matt Blair Trio + Erik Sowa/Robbie Hunsinger Thursday, July 2, 2026 8:30 PM 11:00 PM Google Calendar ICS We welcome Matt Blair from Madison, WI as he brings his trio. Erik Sowa and Robbie Hunsinger imrovise as a duo. 8:30 pm: Erik Sowa/Robbie Hunsinger 9:30 pm: Matt Blair Trio Matt Blair is a pianist, composer, multimedia artist, and educator living in Madison, Wisconsin. His work draws upon diverse musical traditions such as jazz and improvisation, sound art, minimalism, and electronic music. Since 2018, Matt has been releasing music on his label, Scribbled Fang Records. Recent releases have included Shadow Sets, a collection of compositions for solo piano that was produced by Dave King (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple), Post Rock Lately, the debut record of Collector, an improvising trio featuring Jakob Heinemann on bass and Devin Drobka on drums and electronics, and Flights and Poor Health Good Spirits, both releases by Big Thanks, a Minneapolis-based Trash House trio featuring Miles Allen on saxophone and clarinet and Jack Lussenden on drums. Other recent releases have included After Party (out on Dinzu Artefacts), the debut record of Yins, an electronic duo with Devin Drobka, and Resorts (out on Shifting Paradigm Records), a piano trio featuring Devin Drobka’s compositions with Aaron Darrell on bass. Devin Drobka has been creating original music in the midwest for the past 15 years. Audiences around the world have been enthralled with his wide sonic palette and limitless rhythmic possibilities on the drums. A deep love of jazz, metal, folk, hip-hop, ambient, idm, and classical music has helped shaped Devin’s unique voice and vision on the drums both as a leader and as a sideman. His highly personal and creative drumming can be heard within the realm of jazz having performed with Greg Osby, Jerry Bergonzi, Dayna Stephens, and Joe Lovano as well as indie- folk bands like Field Report and indie rappers R.A.P. Ferreira and Serengeti. Devin can be heard on over 50 albums of genre bending, original music for which he is an advocate for. Devin currently composes music for his newest group, The Devin Drobka Trio, which draws upon his love of contemporary classical music and minimalism and his multi horn group, Bell Dance Songs, which is a response to his love of Albert Ayler, Paul Motian, and Ornette Coleman. Devin’s music has been described as “sounding like nothing else in midwestern jazz” and “gorgerous, innovative.” " Devin was a former student of mine at Berklee and one of my best. He was and remains, a serious, inquisitive, committed student, firmly grounded in the tradition, but open to what might be possible as the tradition evolves and changes with each generation... not only is Devin a catalyst of that change... he is " the next generation..." Jon Hazilla - Drum Professor at the Berklee College of Music Originally from Long Island, NY, bassist Brian Courage has spent the last decade as an integral part of the creative music scenes in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, and now Chicago, where he currently resides. He has performed alongside an extensive array of nationally acclaimed improvisers, including Greg Ward, Jon Irabagon, Lew Tabackin, David Hazeltine, Jason Stein, Weasel Walter, Michael Lewis, Erik Fratzke, Russ Johnson, JT Bates, and Billy Mintz. Brian is adept at a wide range of styles and has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, renowned vocal quartet The Four Freshmen, the Chicago Tap Theater, and the New York based Americana / blues rock band Hollis Brown, with whom he toured the US and Europe extensively. His most recent creative endeavor is Abhorrent Expanse, a fully improvised metal band. Their debut album "Gateways to Resplendence" has been featured in prominent outlets including Decibel, Metal Injection, Burning Ambulance, and Wire Magazine. $15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door Tagged: improvised music series Previous Previous June 26 Elastro: Kristina Warren, Ben Zucker, Nu A.M. Next Next July 9 Improvised Music Series: Dave Gordon Quintet, Fred Jackson Jr./Norman Long

Back to All Events Improvised Music Series: Dave Gordon Quintet, Fred Jackson Jr./Norman Long Thursday, July 9, 2026 8:30 PM 10:30 PM Google Calendar ICS Dave Gordon Quintet Fred Jackson Jr./Norman Long (Long photo by Kirk Williamson) An evening of soundscapes with bows, brass, keys, samples and more! 8:30 pm: Fred Jackson Jr. - saxophones Norman Long - electronics 9:30 pm: Dave Gordon Quintet Dushun Mosley - drums/percussion Chris Dammann- bass Jack Gallagher - bass trumpet Brian Gephart- saxophonia Dave Gordon - piano, keyboards $15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door About The Artists The current configuration of the Dave Gordon Quintet has been solid for 14 years, but for the recent addition of Chris Dammann. The ensemble core of Gephart, Gordon and Gallagher, prolific composers all, began collaborating together to play and record their work while studying at Berklee in 1978, with a constant focus on creative improvised music of widely varying amounts of structural pixie dust. This has resulted in a long string of varied releases and performances as a group, and in related projects by each. Dushun Mosley locked in to the group in 2010, drawing on his long, worldwide experience in the iconic Eight Bold Souls, Vizitors, Signature Group, the AACM Big Band, and a host of other artists. Chris Dammann brings a dedication to furthering creative improvisation with a wide experience working in music for various visual media. Musician / Artist / Multi-instrumentalist / Composer Fred Jackson Jr. became a member of the AACM in 2010. Performed with The A.A.C.M. and Saalik Zyiad on Poznań, Poland on a “Made in Chicago” tour. He traveled to Germany was with the AACM New Generations ensemble (under the direction of Ben Lamar Gaye). He was in the first inaugural band of “The Bridge” that played at the MCA in 2010. Since then because of the Bridge, has toured France in 2017 with that same ensemble. Also He studied extensively the music of the African diaspora for more than ten years, “Magic Carpet (band) allowed me the opportunity to study music from all over the world”. Besides his music Jackson also ventures into theatre with “American Myth Crossroads” (Jerrell L. Henderson) and “Little Carl” (Michael Montenegro) Jackson is currently working with Sitarist (Shanta Nurullah of AACM), Mai Sugimoto Quartet, The Great Black Music Ensemble (AACM), Heliacal Rising Of Sothis (Adam Zanolini), his own ensembles Erudition Project and experimental ensemble “Where’s Charlie”? Spacetonic Music is his music publishing label created in 2017. He was awarded the 2020-21 “Fresh Works, New Voices” grant from the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Genre (released in 2022). Also Jackson founded the group Double Helix Quartet with a self titled album (recorded in 2022 and released In 2024). The latest albums where you can find Fred Jackson Jr’s sound would be on Erez Dessel’s “Look Both Days” and Lily Finnegan’s “Heat On.” More releases to come from Fred with “Where’s Charlie”? in 2025 and “Migrations” in 2026. (Bandcamp) Norman W. Long is a Black artist based on Chicago’s Southeast Side whose multidisciplinary practice blends sound, ecology, and community. He leads soundwalks in public parks—often former grayfield or historic sites—while also teaching, field recording, composing, and creating sound installations. Long holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Cornell. He has exhibited and performed at venues including the Renaissance Society, Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts & Media, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. A board member of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, he is also active in the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. He was an artist-in-residence at Hyde Park Art Center in 2025.. He has attended international residencies such as the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, and the Elektronmusikstudion, EMS in Stockholm, Sweden. Long has collaborated with artists such as Angel Bat Dawid, Tatsuya Nakatani, and Damon Locks, releasing work on labels including LINE, Hausu Mountain, and Room40. His latest releases—Lines of Flight, Strinning/Long/Heinemann Trio, and his solo album Scenes of Contestation—are available on Bandcamp. Previous Previous July 2 Improvised Music Series: Matt Blair Trio + Erik Sowa/Robbie Hunsinger Next Next July 16 Improvised Music Series: Avreeayl Ra and Dream Stuff