Christopher Dammann Quintet
North Street Cabaret 610 North St., Madison, Wisconsin 53704
BlueStem Jazz.
media release:
Bassist and composer Christopher Dammann brings together Scott Clark from Richmond, Virginia and local Chicago stalwarts, Edward Wilkerson, James Davis and Mabel Kwan. The night will celebrate the quintet’s debut album on Out Of Your Head Records.
ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM
Christopher Dammann Sextet is by no means the first record that bassist, composer and improviser Christopher Dammann has released, but it’s the first directly under his name. Dammann has gigged persistently in the Chicago scene since the late, great saxophonist Fred Anderson gave him a monthly gig at the Velvet Lounge in 2009 and notably as a regular substitute for Brian Sandstrom in the long-lived free improv collective Extraordinary Popular Delusions, as well as nationally.
Over the years, Dammann has released records as a member of 3.5.7 Ensemble and as the leader of Restroy, but vowed never to attach his name to a group until he had developed a personal vocabulary. As critic Bill Meyer writes in the record’s liner notes, “The choice to give a combo his name amounts to a declaration of arrival; Dammann’s music has evolved to a point where his bass playing, composing, and choice of musicians jointly express his faith in spontaneous collective creation.”
With tunes drawn from improvisations that left Dammann with ideas he “couldn’t shake,” the debut plays with the possibilities of non-linear time and time travel. Beginning with an unaccompanied bass solo which sets the tone as an expression of possibility, Christopher Dammann Sextet makes space for the purposeful and brooding as well as moments of “total squawk fest.” The compositions allow for multiple pulses at once, making scenarios where the musicians can go both backwards and forwards.
With a mix of longtime and first-time collaborators tapped for their singular perspectives, the personnel are as much of a compositional choice as anything written. “Dammann has chosen players who are patient but assertive, with personal voices that combine into self-balancing polyphony,” says Meyer. On horns, Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Jon Irabagon, and James Davis probe and evoke regret and resolve, while Scott Clark’s drumming stokes energy like focused steam and Mabel Kwan’s piano places flagstones on the path supporting progress and pivots.
“It's easy to write too much and choke what is special about an improviser. I made a personal promise to myself not to hold anything I composed in higher regard than what was spontaneously collectively composed,” explains Dammann. He has kept his promises. Christopher Dammann Sextet delivers tunes that are made to be reimagined anew each time they are performed and each time they reach a listener's ears.