Dave Rempis Out Of Season CD

The music on Out of Season is a series of free improvisations with sounds that are often closer to Derek Bailey than to Ornette Coleman. There are some interesting moments, particularly during the first half of "Out of Season: Part I," where altoist Dave Rempis takes a strong solo, followed by a bit of Cecil Taylor-type piano from Jim Baker. However, much of this date features the quartet rambling through sound explorations that rarely develop or seem to go anywhere. "Interlude" and "Part II" are pretty dull and, although there is more fire during "Scuffle: Part I" (which has alto, synthesizer, bass, and drums interacting) and a couple spots for the lyrical side of Baker's piano, it all seems rather inconclusive and random, switching moods now and then for no discernible reason and never resolving anything. Therefore, Out of Season is primarily recommended to listeners with patient and tolerant ears. ~ Scott Yanow

Document Chicago #5Recorded October 6, 2003 live at 3030 in Chicago. After nearly four years of developing their voice as an improvising collective, Rempis (Triage, Vandermark Five, Thread Quintet, Territory Band) and his quartet make their recorded debut with this live set.Following two years of regular work as a drummerless trio that explored quieter dynamics and the harmonic possibilties of their instruments, the group added drummer Tim Daisy and pianist Jim Baker's synthesizer to the mix in 2002 to create a louder, more sound-oriented approach to creating longform free improvisations.*NU Jazz Fest Creates Pervasive Thunder Chicago TribuneHoward Recih It doesn't get the publicity or prominence of its downtown counterparts, but the one-night jazz festival that erupted Thursday evening on the campus of Northwestern University, in Evanston, proved revelatory. For here -- during the course of a single, marathon performance -- some of the best jazz improvisers on the planet (most based in Chicago) unleashed oft-thunderous, intellectually vigorous musical statements. Though all the artists who converged at Northwestern's McCormick Auditorium for the third annual Chicago Sounds Jazz Fest have dedicated their lives to transcending conventional approaches to jazz improvisation, each addressed this challenge in unabashedly idiosyncratic ways. The result was a stunning array of musical perspectives, each persuasive for distinct reasons. Some of the most dynamic musicmaking came from the saxophones of Dave Rempis, a young veteran of Chicago's experimental music scene who has been establishing a vividly recognizable voice of his own. Whether playing alto or tenor saxophone, Rempis made the room shake with the sheer power and ferocity of his work. But there was much more than just volume and rhythmic drive to this performance. Throughout, Rempis altered the tenor and tone of his solos, shifting from a roar to a whisper, from rhythmic energy to near stasis precisely when listeners least expected it. Moreover, Rempis' solos proved both intricately conceived and structurally lucid, even his most complex cadenzas designed to advance the progress of a vast improvisation. Though listeners with conservative tastes might have been puzzled by the squeaks, rasps and moans that Rempis drew from his horns, anyone who has been listening to creative improvisation for the past 40 years or so recognized the musical vernacular on which Rempis drew. He was aided tremendously by the irreplaceably manic keyboardist Jim Baker, who produced gloriously unpredictable bursts of dissonance, color and noise on piano and synthesizer. To hear Baker's strangely oscillating pitches and weirdly fascinating tone clusters softly accompanying Rempis' most gently lyric passages was to behold a kind of poetry of the avant-garde underground. Bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tim Daisy provided nimble, empathetic support from start to finish. The evening's finale, a historic meeting of Chicago reed virtuoso Ken Vandermark and Boston guitar innovator Joe Morris, eThe Wire (p.74) - "[W]hen dithyrambic Jim Baker switches to startling but subtle analogue synth and Rempis cools down on alto sax, the music takes on an airy design and fresh sound."
Down Beat (p.79) - 3 stars out of 5 - "The music ebbs and flows organically as a conversation....There's plenty of rumbling intensity at times...but the group is just as impressive at whispering..."
JazzTimes (p.147) - "The band gets a nice variety of unconventional sounds out of their instruments."