Événement

Ken Vandermark PNL Duo, Ben Opie & Patrick Breiner

Tue Sep 3 7:30 pm all ages welcome $20 advance/$25 door
The Government Center, 715 East Street, North Side

tickets on sale at: Jerry's Records (Sq Hill), Caliban Books (Oakland), Government Center (North Side), Long Play Cafe (Lawrenceville), The Outpost (Dormont) & Vinyl Remains (Mt Lebanon). Also at Brown Paper Tickets (see ticket link).

giants of experimental jazz improvisation!
KEN VANDERMARK PNL DUO
https://www.catalyticsound.com/musician/ken-vandermark/
https://www.instagram.com/ken_vandermark/
https://vandermark1.bandcamp.com/
https://kenvandermark.com/

with special guests
BEN OPIE & PATRICK BREINER (duo)
https://benopie.com/
https://www.patrickbreiner.com/

KEN VANDERMARK PNL DUO
Ken Vandermark (USA): tenor saxophone & clarinet
PNL: drums & percussion

The high impact duo of PNL (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds) has been working together for more than two decades, touring in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Brazil, and releasing 11 albums of critically acclaimed, wide ranging improvised music throughout that period. Though they have both worked in many other exceptional groups- such as the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and Lean Left (with Terrie Hessels and Andy Moor of The Ex)- they have continued to return to their duo for more than 20 years because it remains crucial to their creative output.

PNL and Vandermark began this collaboration when they recorded their initial album, Dual Pleasure, for the label Smalltownsupersound, in 2002. Shortly afterward, they performed their first concert at the Molde International Jazz Festival. Since then, they've performed on an international basis every year. Their approach to the duo context is ferocious in its intensity, combining extreme rhythmic velocity with formal deconstruction and re-assembly, with the freedom to use any genre as a resource at any time. In many ways, PNL and Vandermark are more open in this setting than with any of their other playing situations, creating a unique approach to improvised music that is riveting in its ideas and execution.

The duos most recent tours occurred in both Brazil and Japan during 2019. The pair will return to Japan in January of 2024, for a series of concerts that will coincide with the release of the PNL & Ken Vandermark: JAPAN 2019 boxset of recordings, which includes collaborations with legendary Japanese musicians: Akira Sakata, Masahiko Satoh, and Yuji Takahashi.

The entire album comes through like an imaginary concert of the mind, where powerhouse squeaks and crashes demonstrate the potency of the duo, making way for high pitched reeds and rolling drums, clearing the path for spacier sections only to take flight again, soaring high into the next gear shift. This album is highly recommended, but very difficult to explain, it really must be be experienced to be fully understood. It is an interesting way to move forward for the music, using avant-garde techniques from other artistic disciplines and folding them into progressive jazz in a very thoughtful manner.
Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues Blog, August 2019

The Lions Have Eaten One of the Guards is yet another album solidifying Ken Vandermark and PNL as one of the most powerful improvisational duos around. Vandermark and PNL have been playing together for more than ten years now (with almost as many records) and in that time, theyve pared away the excesses, trimmed the fat, and stream-lined their sound. In essence, theyve become leaner, meaner, and extremer.
Derek Stone, freejazzblog, December 2015