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player ready...This week, one of Chicago’s most exciting young bandleaders, jazz vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, wraps up a two-week tour with European free-jazz legend Peter Brotzmann. After a decade as a sideman in several independent rock bands, Adasiewicz in the last few years has shown himself to be a force, cementing his reputation with his critically lauded “Sun Rooms” album. He spoke to the Tribune last week from the road.
Q: How did you come to know Brotzmann and his work?
A: I became aware of Peter’s work when I started working at Jazz Record Mart. I went to DePaul for music and I had just met (young Chicago jazz staples) Joshua Berman and Frank Rosaly, but I didn’t know much about the European jazz scene. I met him for the first time about five years ago when I was subbing for Frank Rosaly in the Lonberg-Holm trio, trying to play drums. (Laughs.) We shared some shows with Peter and Joe McPhee, and that was my first real introduction to him, to them both, and I count that as a real changing point for me.
Q: And you had dropped out of DePaul to pursue the jazz scene?
A: That was my whole reason. Here’s this city that I haven’t explored, filled with things I have never known about.
Q: Did seeing live jazz in the city obliterate your ability to go back and study academic jazz at DePaul?
A: Yeah. Exactly. I grew up in the ‘burbs, in Crystal Lake, and there academic jazz had been my outlet. But it’s different; you are competing constantly against district and state bands. That was my main reason for going to DePaul, to get to go to the city. I didn’t want to go to school, I wanted to be in the scene. I had no idea how to get to it, but I lucked out and it found me. I got hooked up with playing in (defunct ensemble) Pinetop 7; through those guys I came to be involved. There is so much overlap between the improvisers scene, the jazz scene, the rock scene in Chicago — that band was my gate opening. I got lucky. I didn’t even know who they were. I didn’t know about (legendary Chicago independent rock labels) Thrill Jockey and Touch n’ Go. I didn’t know who Tortoise was — none of the big bands.
Q: How did you get from that place to being a bandleader?
A: I had always been writing songs that were in the tradition of jazz, of swing. For a long time I was a sideman with Edith Frost, Maneshevitz, other bands. This was during the era of (John) Corbett and (Ken) Vandermark booking jazz nights at the Empty Bottle, but no one like us young guys could get a gig there. So, me and (drummer and local festival impresario) Mike Reed started the Hungry Brain series so we would have a place to play.
Q: A pretty punk-rock move for jazz guys.
A: Yeah. (Laughs.) It was a chance for me to present all this music, to do all this stuff with bands that never got to play. I knew from touring with the rock bands I played with out of college that this is what I wanted to do, be playing. When I was in college, I thought that making a living playing music, if I was lucky, would mean lining up a regular weekend brunch gig playing standards somewhere. And now I am on tour with Peter Brotzmann and having a chance to be up close and really understand the kind of language he has created, to see the power of what he has created, onstage, every night. I am a very physical player, too, but he really brings out the drummer in me. What we have together is just this constant propulsion. The intensity is constantly moving us forward.
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When: 10 p.m. Saturday
Where: Elastic Arts Foundation, 2830 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Tickets: $20 (all ages); elasticarts.org