Cornetist Rob Mazurek leads a variety of ensembles around town, but surely the most intriguing of them is his Chicago Underground Orchestra, which performed Wednesday night at the Empty Bottle, on North Western Avenue.
If Mazurek’s playing in other bands sometimes has seemed a bit quaint and nostalgic, here he pushes into more daring musical territory. Joined by guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Robert Barry and bassist Josh Abrams, the cornetist ventures into unmetered rhythm, bracing dissonance, abrupt sonic eruptions and even passages of non-pitch playing.
None of this, of course, is particularly novel in the free-jazz vocabulary, but for Mazurek it represents a departure from his more traditional fare. Moreover, it freshens his work, counterbalancing his warmly melodic playing with something more lively and provocative.
In other words, Mazurek naturally leans toward introspective lyricism, which can become tiresome in large doses (particularly when he is playing standards). But with Parker, Barry and Abrams pushing the cornetist to pursue newer sounds, Mazurek produces solos with plenty of fire and fury.
The unpredictable musical backdrop that these three players provide clearly inspires their leader. On Wednesday evening, for instance, Parker reveled in the particular dissonance that musicians call “minor seconds,” while Barry produced a lean, terse and biting counterpoint on drums. Bassist Abrams filled out the texture, the threesome giving Mazurek precisely the bold kind of accompaniment that inspires him to take flight.
If Mazurek didn’t exactly take pains to interact with his rhythm players, at least he played boldly stated solos that held their own. The fierce syncopations he articulated in a piece called “Playground,” the virtuoso, top-register playing he offered elsewhere in the set pointed to a soloist who is charting new musical ground for himself.
Not that Mazurek and friends have yet achieved a completely polished sound. Solos sometimes run on too long, ensemble passages occasionally slip into a comfortable rhythmic groove that becomes a bit predictable.
Yet these performers, who have been working together for the past eight months, clearly are forging a repertoire and a musical manner that is uniquely their own.
Precisely why a quartet dubs itself an orchestra is open to debate, though perhaps the band’s title, like much of its music, is ironic. Just as the coy tango rhythms in Mazurek’s “Solaris” are dispatched tongue-in-cheek, so the band’s grandiloquent title suggests deadpan humor.
Regardless of the name, however, this ensemble represents an unmistakable high point in the work of a noteworthy Chicago musician.
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The Chicago Underground Orchestra plays Friday at the Bop Shop, 1807 W. Division St. Phone 312-235-3232.
