Ken Vandermark is a
Chicago based
saxophone and
clarinet player.
Born September 22, 1964 in
Rhode Island he was raised in
Boston and relocated to Chicago in 1989.
It was in 1992 his free jazz ensemble the
Vandermark Quartet (also featuring violinist/guitarist
Daniel Scanlan, bassist
Kent Kessler, and percussionist
Michael Zerang) landed a weekly gig at the local
HotHouse club which brought him to fame in the Chicago scene.
By 1995, Vandermark was involved in a series of projects including the
NRG Ensemble, the
Flying Luttenbachers,
Caffeine,
Cinghiale,
Signal to Noise Unit, the
Steel Wool Trio,
Witches & Devils,
Barrage Double Trio, and the
Crown Royals.
In 1997 he cut back to focus his energies into the
Vandermark 5 (founded in 1996 with saxophonist
Mars Williams, trombonist
Jeb Bishop, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer
Tim Mulvenna), the
DKV Trio (with Kessler and percussionist
Hamid Drake), and
Steam (again with Kessler, Mulvenna, and pianist
Jim Baker).
Renowned for a sound embracing
bop,
free-jazz and
R&B, Vandermark also collaborated with visiting musicians including
German reedist
Peter Brotzmann,
French bassist
Joelle Leandre, and
Swedish saxophonist
Mats Gustafsson.
In 1999 he won a
MacArthur Foundation Genius grant (the first
jazz musician to win the award.
For a comprehensive discography see:
http://tisue.net/vandermark/