The Chicago-based avant-jazz unit
Vandermark 5 are led by reedist
Ken Vandermark, who founded the group in 1996 with saxophonist
Mars Williams, trombonist
Jeb Bishop, bassist
Kent Kessler, and drummer
Tim Mulvenna. The group's recording debut came early the following year with
Single Piece Flow on the Chicago-based Atavistic label. The quintet returned in 1998 with
Target or Flag, and each successive release garnered the group increasing critical praise. Saxophonist
Dave Rempis replaced
Williams prior to
the Vandermark 5's third LP,
Simpatico (1999). The group became a favorite at jazz festivals, and in 2000 released its fourth album in four years (all on Atavistic),
Burn the Incline. The following year brought their newest installment,
Acoustic Machine. The band then changed drummers, welcoming Tim Daisy as the new man behind the kit. His first album with the band was 2003's
Airports for Light.
The Vandermark 5 continued performing and recording prolifically throughout the 2000s, issuing the further Atavistic releases
Elements of Style...Exercises in Surprise in 2004,
Color of Memory in 2005,
Discontinuous Line in 2006, and Beat Reader in 2008;
Discontinuous Line marked the first recorded appearance of cellist
Fred Lonberg-Holm (who joined the group following trombonist
Jeb Bishop's departure in 2005) as a member of the quintet. Four of the band's Atavistic CDs included bonus discs entitled
Free Jazz Classics, and featured interpretations of music by the likes of
Ornette Coleman,
Cecil Taylor,
Anthony Braxton,
Julius Hemphill,
Sonny Rollins, and
Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The discs were subsequently released as
Free Jazz Classics, Vols. 1-2 and Vols. 3-4. Alchemia, a massive 12-CD set documenting
the Vandermark 5's residency (with
Bishop included in the lineup) at the club of the same name in Krakow, Poland during March of 2005, was issued later that year by the Polish Not Two label. Not Two also released another live set by the group in 2010, The Horse Jumps/The Ship Is Gone, recorded live during June 2009 at the Green Mill in Chicago, with the quintet supplemented by Swedish trumpeter
Magnus Broo and Norwegian pianist
Håvard Wiik, both members of Scandinavian free jazzers
Atomic. ~ Jason Ankeny & Dave Lynch