Tim Daisy Quartet

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Marek Lazarski

Tim Daisy

This BlueStem Jazz concert is likely the pick of the month for fans of improvised music. The ensemble is led by drummer Tim Daisy, a Chicago-based composer/improvisational player and prolific recording artist, joined by saxophonist Dave Rempis, a frequent collaborator and fellow long-time Chicago music scene mainstay. (For a preview of their work together, seek out The COVID Tapes on the Aerophonic Records Bandcamp page.) The quartet also features a pair of NYC scene leaders currently working as educators in the Midwest: trumpeter Russ Johnson and bassist John Hébert. All are prominent bandleaders, so the ideas are sure to be flying fast and heavy when they collaborate.

media release:

Tim Daisy is an American drummer and composer working in the fields of improvised and composed music. Tim moved to Chicago in 1997 and since that time has performed, recorded, and toured with many national and international improvised musicians and ensembles.

Some of the musicians he has performed with include Dave Rempis, Ken Vandermark,Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Steve Swell, Jaimie Branch, Katherine Young, Fred Lonberg-Holm, James Falzone, Russ Johnson, Kyle Bruckmann, Katinka Kleijn, Elizabeth Harnik, Christof Kurzmann, Ikue Mori, Rafael Toral, Mikolaj Trzaska, Per Ake Holmlander, Darren Johnston, Havard Wiik, Jason Stein and Michael Zerang.

In 2011 he received the New Music America Composers Assistance Award and in 2011, 2012 and 2017 the ASCAP Plus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He has recorded over one hundred and thirty albums as a sideman or leader for labels including Relay, (which he owns and operates), Not Two, Clean Feed, Astral Spirits, Aerophonic, Audiographic, Sonorus, Trost, Utech, New World, and Okka Disk.

Tim co-curates the weekly OPTION series at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. The programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a ‘salon’ format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform.

Saxophonist, improviser, and composer Dave Rempis has been an integral part of the thriving Chicago jazz and improvised music scene since 1997.  With a background in ethnomusicology and African studies at Northwestern University, including a year spent at the University of Ghana, Rempis burst onto the creative music scene at the age of 22 when he was asked to join the now-legendary Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe, an active schedule that he still maintains to the present day.  At the same time, Rempis began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he’s currently known, including The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, Wheelhouse, Triage, The Rempis/Rosaly Duo, and The Rempis/Daisy Duo.  Other collaborations have included work with Paul Lytton, Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Tomeka Reid, Steve Swell, Elisabeth Harnik, John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Nate Wooley, Jaimie Branch, Kevin Drumm, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nels Cline, and Joe McPhee.  In 2013, he started his own record label, Aerophonic Records, to document this ongoing work.  Rempis has been named regularly since 2006 in the annual Downbeat Critics’s Poll as a “rising star” on both alto and baritone saxophone, a category that he won in 2017.  He’s received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jazz Road Touring sponsored by the Doris Duke and Andrew Mellon Foundations, the City of Chicago Individual Artist Program, and was the recipient of a Ragdale Fellowship from the Herb Alpert Foundation in 2017.

Rempis’ musical expression draws on a number of touchstones. While heavily improvisational in nature, his Greek ethnicity, studies in jazz and ethnomusicology, an appreciation for the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary composition, and a love for unforgivingly strident yelps, screeches, and squeals that can encompass the ever-evolving state of human depravity all inform his work.

Aside from his work as a musician and composer, Rempis has worked tirelessly as a presenter.  Since 2002, he’s curated and produced a weekly series of improvised music at Chicago’s Elastic Arts Foundation, where he’s also served as Board President since 2015. He was a founding member of the presenters’ collective Umbrella Music, and one of the lead producers and curators of its annual festival of improvised music from 2006-2014. He was business manager of the world renowned Pitchfork Music Festival from 2005-2016, and now works as Operations Manager with the neighborhood-based Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago. He also serves on the Curatorial Board of the Ragdale Foundation.

Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a recent Midwest transplant after spending 23 years as an important member of New York City’s jazz community. He has 7 recordings as a leader or co-leader and performed on more than 75 recordings as a sideman. Russ has worked alongside many of the legendary figures in jazz including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Bill Frisell, and Joe Lovano. In addition, he has recorded and/or performed with a long list of the most prominent musicians currently on the international jazz scene, including Myra Melford, Ken Vandermark, and Tony Malaby. Russ has performed in more than 40 countries across the globe.  His groups have recently performed at the Chicago, Winter Jazz Fest (NYC) Hyde Park, (Chicago) and Bergamo, (Italy) jazz festivals.

 His most recent recordings, Meeting Point (Relay Recordings) and Still Out To Lunch! (Enja Records) received 4 1/2 & 4 stars respectively from Down Beat Magazine and appeared on many “Best Recordings of 2014/5” lists including Down Beat, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, NYC Jazz Record and Magnet magazine. Russ will be releasing a new recording by his “Headlands” Quartet in 2017.

 Russ is also active as an educator/clinician, having taught at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Europe. He currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin Parkside where he won the university wide “Stella Gray” Teaching Excellence award in 2016.

John Hébert, bassist, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana where he first began to study double bass with Bill Huntington.  John attended Loyola University of New Orleans where he received a full scholarship.  After two years of performing with many of New Orleans greatest musicians and performing at various clubs including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival he moved to the New York tri-state area to attend William Paterson University where he continued his studies under bassist, Rufus Reid and received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance.  

Since graduating in 1995, John has lived in the New York City area and established himself as a highly sought after bassist.  He has worked along side world famous artists such as Andrew Hill, Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Motian, Joe Maneri, Mary Havorson, Tomasz Stanko, David Liebman, Uri Caine, Greg Osby, Bill Stewart, Marc Copland, Fred Hersch, Toots Thielemans, Maria Schneider, and many others.  

In recent years, he has taken on the role of bandleader of various projects.  His group Byzantine Monkey, released their first CD in June 2009 on the Firehouse 12 label. It was reviewed in Downbeat and received 4 stars. “On his first album as a leader he displays a sonic vision that’s all his own,” says Peter Margarsak. In 2010, John Hébert Trio released Spiritual Lover on the Clean Feed label to very positive reviews.  According to Stuart Broomer, “it’s a trio of genuinely equal parts and plays music of great melodic strength.”  In 2011, John formed his Rambling Confessions quartet which has performed at well known clubs such as The Stone and Jazz Gallery.     

He is also named in Downbeat’s 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Critics Poll as a “Rising Star Acoustic Bassist.”  Most recently in 2011, John won the poll as “Rising Star Acoustic Bassist.” From 2001 until Andrew Hill’s passing in 2007, John worked with Mr. Hill in various ensembles.  John is also featured on Andrew Hill’s last Blue Note release, “Time Lines” which was awarded “Record of the Year” by Downbeat’s Jazz Critics Poll in 2006.  John has also performed around the world at festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Tampere Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Moers Jazz Festival, Ear Shot Jazz Festival and San Francisco Jazz Festival.  He can also be heard in some of New York City’s most renowned venues such as The Village Vanguard, Blue Note, The Jazz Standard, Birdland and Iridium.

In 2011 John was awarded the French American Jazz Exchange Grant from the French Cultural Institute and Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation for his work with Parisian pianist Benoit Delbecq and New York drummer Gerald Cleaver. The follow up to the trio's first recording was released in January of 2014. The album entitled Floodstage on Clean Feed records has already gained much attention since its release.

2015 saw the latest release by John on the Sunnyside record label entitled “Rambling Confessions”. It features vocalist Jen Shyu, pianist Andy Milne and drummer Billy Drummond. The record has received much praise including 4.5 stars in Downbeat.

In 2019, John was hired as Assistant Professor of Jazz Bass at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He continues to teach and tour the Globe.