Ken Vandermark

When composing for a group, Ken Vandermark as a rule takes into account factors such as each musician's approach to improvisation, personal tastes and individual sound. So when he chose to compose for a tentet that included musicians who were virtually an unknown quantity to him – musicians such as Polish saxophonist/clarinetist, Mikolaj Trzaska and the Ukrainian duo, Yuriy Yaremczuk on reeds and Mark Tokar on bass – it could have been seen as a foray into relatively unknown territory. And it was to an extent, although the leader had already forged an intimate understanding with some of the musicians who were involved – percussionist Tim Daisy and saxophonist Dave Rempis are after all fully-fledged members of the Vandermark 5 and Ken has worked with Swedish trumpeter Magnus Broo in the Four Corners project. He is also familiar with the work of tuba player Per-Âke Holmlander and percussionist Michael Zerang as they play together in Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet. But nobody in the tentet - extraordinarily, given his reputation and work ethic - had previously performed with New York-based trombonist, Steve Swell. Vandermark completed the majority of the arrangements over the six day period before the group arrived. Some of the compositions had been sketched out previously and others were inspired by the atmosphere and people Ken associated with Krakow, the historic old city that has become his second home. When the musicians arrived, they found themselves immersed in a punishing schedule that started with daily rehearsals that started at 10am – sharp. Although always open to musically justified new ideas, Vandermark called for extraordinary precision in these rehearsals. So it was unsurprising that many of the musicians really let off steam in the freely improvised evening sets that followed the rehearsals. But it didn't stop there. Many of the musicians espoused sleep after the evening sets in favour of bison-grass-vodka-fuelled discussions about music that lasted well into the night.
At the end of the week, music fans from all over the region flocked to the concerts in Lviv and Krakow that the musicians had been rehearsing for over the preceding five days, one group even chartering a jet from Georgia. At the end of the week, when it was time to say goodbye, the bonds formed between some of the musicians were so strong that some couldn't contain their tears. But for many of these artists it was adieu rather than farewell as many intend to build on their Resonance experience by collaborating with each again in the future. (Philip Palmer, Jazzwise magazine)