June 24-30, 2004

musicpicks

Vandermark Five

jazz

In its best moments, the Vandermark Five occupies a space somewhere between the urgent chaos of post-'60s Chicago free jazz and the propulsive rumble of New York-style post-bop. It's a compromise that suits Ken Vandermark, the renegade who has done more than any other Windy City musician to span the stylistic divide. Vandermark himself is a walking contradiction — he looks like a Marine but composes with an ear for heady intellectualism, and his hardscrabble independence belies the MacArthur "genius grant" he was awarded in 1999. What's so engaging about him is the fact that he's still pushing forward with the work ethic of a 1930s territory bandleader and the creative juice of an Ornette Coleman. Despite many other projects, the Vandermark Five remains his best-known (and best) ensemble, and this year's Elements Of Style, Exercises In Surprise (Atavistic) proves that they've still got the goods where it counts.

Tue., June 29, 8 p.m., $10-$12, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.

—Kyle Parker