Umbrella Music Fest Blasts Off

By Chris Bentley in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 3, 2011 3:20PM

Chicago’s avant-garde collective Umbrella Music kicked off its sixth annual music festival Wednesday, leaving no doubt this year’s crop of visiting artists and Chicago stalwarts deserve a spot in any jazz fan’s weekend plans.

Tonight is part two of the festival’s “European Jazz Meets Chicago” series, featuring five more free sets. Sponsored by consulates and cultural institutions from ten different European nations, the series pairs renowned musicians from across the pond with some of Chicago’s finest. Their improvised sets blaze exciting new ground.

Highlights from night one were too many to list, but Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger teamed up with Umbrella curator Dave Rempis and analog electronic manipulator Nick Butcher for a wild and unnerving set. Hautzinger rammed the microphone up the bell of his horn, blowing air like a swarm of locusts into the PA. Spit rattled in Rempis’ saxophone throughout guttural moans and hisses. Over the electronic and vinyl samples brewed by Butcher, the group’s total sound evoked ghost ships lost in the fog, or a deep space lament.

Night two continues at the Chicago Cultural Center starting at 6:30 p.m. Then the festival moves to Umbrella’s regular venues: Elastic, The Hideout and The Hungry Brain. Sun Ra Arkestra veteran Marshall Allen joins Philadelphia sax royalty Odean Pope on Saturday for a meeting of the minds that is just one of the many reasons this free jazz festival sets the tone for creative music in the year to come.

Photo by: Seth Tisue