Gerry Hemingway Quartet

"I'm reticent to use the word 'jazz' as a moniker," Gerry Hemingway explains over the phone from his Hackettstown, NJ, home. "But I've accepted it. I wear the category with some interest in giving it a wider definition than is currently being purported by the coat-and-tie establishment."

Hemingway, like many of his peers, shies away from musical categorization. Although the percussionist/composer has worked extensively with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman and Anthony Davis, it would be somehow inexact to brand him a pure disciple of jazzdom's avant-garde. Hemingway's musical palette exceeds the colors of a single genre; his c.v. includes solo percussion projects, chamber pieces and orchestral works. His acclaimed Netherlands-based quintet—which features cellist Ernst Reijseger, reedman Michael Moore, trombonist Wolter Wierbos and bassist Mark Dresser—has been a staple on the European progressive jazz scene since the late '80s.

Roughly a year ago, his desire to maintain a North American ensemble prompted him to form the Gerry Hemingway Quartet, with Dresser, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and trumpeter Herb Robertson. "The people in this group are all extremely gifted individual improvisers," Hemingway says. "The pieces [we play] are formally pretty coherent, and somebody coming to this stuff for the first time would recognize an integrity to the form and content. And it's jazz. It swings hard, it cooks a lot, and it has an extremely wide sound world."

The quartet recently completed an album, Johnny's Corner Song, on Auricle Records. Like most of Hemingway's catalogue (which includes much-sought-after albums on the Random Acoustics and Hat Art labels), the new disc won't be available through the usual channels of distribution. Hemingway has always leaned toward a self-sufficient approach to the music industry; his personal homepage, located at www.interactive.net/~gerryhem/index.html, features a discography, bio, complete tour itinerary, interviews and descriptions of his various ongoing musical projects.

Given Hemingway's renegade philosophy, it's only fitting that the quartet's Philly appearance is the work of the new and very independent Sweetnighter Productions. In fact, the concert date coincides with the release date for Hemingway's new disc; buy a copy directly from Gerry, while they last.

The Gerry Hemingway Quartet, Fri., May 22, 7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Church, 22nd & Chestnut Sts., 665-1170.

-Nate Chinen