Ken Vandermark | en

Vandermark and Nilssen-Love started their collaboration in 2000 when the group School Days was formed. One year later they started FME, a trio with bass player Nate McBride. After this it seemed very natural to define a duo. The first occasion using this format was to record the cd ”Dual Pleasure” in Oslo during the summer of 2002. Shortly after this they performed their first duo concert at Molde International Jazz Festival. “Dual Pleasure” was released by the Norwegian label smalltownsupersound and has received excellent reviews, such as the statement by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (Terje Mosnes): “This is free improvised...

Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964 in Warwick, Rhode Island) is an American jazz composer/arranger and saxophone and clarinet player. He grew up in Massachusetts, graduating from Natick High School. He performed and led groups while in high school and at McGill University in Montreal which he attended from 1982 to 1986. He is mostly self-taught as a musician, but studied intermittently with George Garzone in the early 1980s. Returning to the Boston area after graduation, he led or co-led groups (including Lombard Street and Mr. Furious) in Boston. Compositions/arrangements for the Boston-based groups set the groundwork for and predicted...

The Vandermark 5 was formed during the spring of 1996. Since that time it has been a major outlet for the compositional and improvisational ideas of Ken Vandermark, whose thinking has been developed through years of work with groups like the NRG Ensemble, AALY, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, the Free Music Ensemble, School Days, Free Fall, and the Territory Band. Trying to organize a small unit with the capabilities of a large ensemble, he needed and chose four exceptional musicians to join him on the project: Jeb Bishop: trombone/guitar, Kent Kessler: bass, Tim Mulvenna: drums, and Mars Williams: saxophone....