Search - Ken Vandermark :: Design in Time

"Give the drummer some," James Brown once commanded. MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Ken Vandermark takes this directive to heart on his trio's debut recording by playing with not one but two drummers. In the past, the Chicago-based clarinet and saxophone player has made it a point to work with inspirational elders like Peter Brötzmann, Fred Anderson, and Joe McPhee; this band is an ongoing collaboration with drummer Robert Barry, who recorded extensively with Sun Ra in the 1950s. The third point of this perfectly balanced musical triangle is Vandermark 5 drummer Tim Mulvenna, an occasional student of Barry's. Although the band does justice to gorgeous melodies written by Ra, Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Vandermark himself, rhythm is the thing here. The drummers' individual parts mesh into dense but carefully sculpted patterns, and Vandermark reins in his often-energetic attack to dig deep into the percussionists' grooves. --Bill Meyer