WRACK – Feb. 16th @ Audio for the Arts

http://www.kylebruckmann.com/wrack.htm

Thursday, February 16^th – Audio For The Arts (7 S. Blair St., Madison) – $8 general admission – doors at 7:30

WRACK skirts the boundaries of an ever-evolving tradition hovering at the crossroads of other traditions. It is both a chamber ensemble with a highly unusual instrumentation and a book of compositions tailor-made for the personalities of its members. While the compositions’ melodic and contrapuntal content is reminiscent of European-American classical modernism, their modular structures and improvisational procedures are heavily indebted to the innovations of the African-American Creative Music continuum.

Oboist Kyle Bruckmann founded the project in Chicago in 2002, enlisting trombonist Jeb Bishop, percussionist Tim Daisy, bassist Kurt Johnson, and violist Jen Clare Paulson. Their debut record on Red Toucan demonstrated the band’s “ability to combine turned-up flame with clear-headed attention to texture and space” and was hailed as “a document of exciting new directions from some of Chicago’s best players.” (Dusted magazine)

Bruckmann moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, but has maintained ties to Chicago’s vibrant avant-jazz and improvised music community ever since. During a 2005 homecoming visit, Wrack reconvened with bass clarinetist Jason Stein and bassist Anton Hatwich replacing Bishop and Johnson, who were unavailable at the time. The resulting album on 482 Music, Intents & Purposes, provides “dazzling proof that intricately arranged, angular modern jazz can be accessible and enjoyable.” (The Wire)

Wrack is touring in support of their new album Cracked Refraction, out on Porter Records. They will perform two sets of new music in the warm, intimate setting of Audio For The Arts.

~ by Surrounded by Reality Jazz on January 21, 2012.