ABOUT FRED LONBERG-HOLM
Chicago based cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm has played and studied music in a variety of situations from the Juilliard School to the gutter. A former student of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus and Pauline Oliveros, his primary projects are his Valentine Trio and The Lightbox Orchestra.
ABOUT DAVE REMPIS
Saxophonist, improviser, and composer Dave Rempis has been an integral part of the thriving Chicago jazz and improvised music scene since 1997. With a background in ethnomusicology and African studies at Northwestern University, including a year spent at the University of Ghana, Rempis burst onto the creative music scene at the age of 22 when he was asked to join the now-legendary Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe, an active schedule that he still maintains to the present day. At the same time, Rempis began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he’s currently known, including The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister, Rempis/Abrams/Ra, Wheelhouse, Triage, The Rempis/Rosaly Duo, and The Rempis/Daisy Duo. Other collaborations have included work with Paul Lytton, Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Tomeka Reid, Steve Swell, Elisabeth Harnik, John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Nate Wooley, Jaimie Branch, Kevin Drumm, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nels Cline, and Joe McPhee. In 2013, he started his own record label, Aerophonic Records, to document this ongoing work.
ABOUT PAAL NILSSEN
It was natural to choose his fathers drums as his instrument and jazz as his work. From 1990 on he took actively part in the jazz milieu in Stavanger and joined bands with established musicians such as trumpeter Didrik Ingvaldsen and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad. In many ways, these collaborations were essential as they pointed out the directions for Paal’s later musical development and career. During his studies at the Jazz dept at the University in Trondheim, where the first self initiated bands were established, things developed really fast – and Paal was nationally acknowledged at the age of 20.
BALLISTER - DAVE REMPIS -JAZZ MUSIC
3. November 2019, 20:30 Uhr
HALLE 6, DACHAUER STR. 112D
This free-wheeling trio first came together at a closed session in 2009, and as any fan of improvised music can imagine, the band hit hard from the first note and hasn’t looked back since. The unabashed energy of Rempis and Nilssen-Love, coupled with the electrified cello antics of Lonberg-Holm, make for a powerful listening experience that combines driving grooves with noisy textures and occasional melodic interjections. These sliding and overlapping rhythms often give the music a feeling as if a rug is slowly being pulled out from underneath the listener while the music still maintains a strong forward momentum. Reference points include the Julius Hemphill groups of the 70's and 80's featuring Abdul Wadud, Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, and the early-70's explorations of Miles Davis' electric bands.
PRESS
Ballister is named after a crossbow, and they put a premium on aggression. There’s a freshness and sense of discovery in their wide-ranging music. But there’s also a deep and hard-earned understanding between these players which enables them to build tension to the point of shattering, and then surf gracefully upon the shards. -Bill Meyer DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
Let’s hope that those who were at the Hideout in Chicago on June 16th of last year have sufficiently recovered in the meantime, because based on this live recording, they must at least have had their eyebrows scorched off. -Guy Peters FREEJAZZ.ORG
As with all excellent improvisation, the process is seamless, whether the trio is intertwining the cellist’s electronics with the drummer’s ride cymbal or whether they are burning up the stage to some old school energy jazz. The illusion created here is of controlled chaos where themes emerge from the wall of energy and the band directs the current. -Mark Corrotto ALLABOUTJAZZ
Ballister might start with the question,” what do we do with all this energy?” Rage, yes; but there is more…. The trio burns, but not for the sake of combustion. In between the uproar is the meat, the viscera, and the heart of sound. This trio finds beauty in the maelstrom. -The New York City Jazz Record
The band currently has eight releases under its belt, including Bastard String (self-released, 2010) Mechanisms (Clean Feed Records, 2012) Mi Casa es en Fuego (self-released, 2013), Both Ends (Bocian Records, 2014, LP only), Worse For The Wear (Aerophonic Records, 2015) and The Ballister Monologues (Astral Spirits, 2015, cassette only/limited edition). Slag (2017) and Low Level Stink (Dropa Disc, 2017) They’ve also toured both North America and Europe extensively in that time.