Tracks include genius remake of Beatles’ classic “Eleanor Rigby”
Fulton Street Collective
1821 West Hubbard Street
Chicago, IL 60622
In the analogue age, it would have been hard for a musician as omni-dimensional as Chicago’s Andrew Vogt to build a credible profile embracing the sweep of genres in which he is active. Back then, music was tribal and monotheistic and binary choices were as complicated as it got. There were jazz players and rock players, acoustic bassists and electric bassists, and so on and so forth and ne’er the twain should meet. But in the streaming era, Bela Bartok, John Coltrane and Patsy Cline engage in random sonic frottage with each other and nobody is offended. The idea of off-limits bedmates has passed. In jazz, the new inclusiveness allows border-hopping musicians such as Vogt (or pianist Julius Rodriguez or the late, great Chicago-based trumpeter, Jaimie Branch) to thrive.
Born, bred and buttered in Chicagoland, Vogt first recorded in 2010 as a member of Balkan jazz ensemble Eyes Manouche and Bosnian rock band Ode. More about that below. Vogt has since played on over 60 albums across a range of jazz, beyond-jazz and non-jazz styles. These include recordings as a member of Chicago Soul Jazz Collective and the jam band-inclined Bonzo Squad, and others with his own free-improv group For Free and fusion outfit AV Club. Then there are collaborations with the string quartet ATLYS, spanning jazz, classical and electronic dance music, and a series of audacious singles reconfiguring Beatles hits as beyond-category instrumentals. In 2022, with Americana singer/songwriter B Forrest, Vogt even had a hit bluegrass single, “Oihana.” And all this only scratches the surface of his far-ranging output.
But, surprisingly, among all this manifold activity, Awakening is Vogt’s first full-length album of acoustic-bass jazz, a genre in which, in performance in Chicago clubs, he has developed an enviable reputation. Now, at last, listeners further afield can hear what all the fuss is about.
The album features a cohort of Chicagoan heavy hitters who share Vogt’s cross-border inclinations. The core sextet is acoustic and electric keyboards player Stu Mindeman (Kurt Elling), tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi (Bon Iver), trumpeter Quentin Coaxum, alternating guitarists Joel Ream and Hans Luchs, and drummer Christian Euman (Jacob Collier). Guests include the ATLYS string quartet, singer and lyricist Sarah Marie Young and poet and spoken word artist Sharon Irving. Tracked during the same period as AV Club, For Free and For Free Vol. 2, Vogt’s decision to add strings to two tracks and vocals to one, followed in short order by the pandemic, meant that Awakening’s release was delayed (though four digital-only singles were pulled from it in 2022-23).
Awakening includes six Vogt originals and an outstanding reinvention of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby,” the album’s closer. “Awakening” is a musical version of a slow-burning yogic sun salutation, building in intensity from Mindeman’s rubato introduction into an explosive climax focused on an extended solo by Laurenzi. Comparators exist in Pharoah Sanders’ and Alice Coltrane's 1970s cosmic jazz. Up next, “Wes’ Waltz” has a more complex structure, its narrative inspired, as Vogt explains in the liner notes, by personal experiences of the cycle of life and death.
The tempo accelerates on “Hammerspace,” which features an assertive solo from Laurenzi and a full on in-your-face one from Euman. “Dusk” is a lush ballad featuring Sarah Marie Young and Sharon Irving. Laurenzi and Coaxum’s obbligatos enhance the mood, framed by the ATLYS strings. ATLYS return for the odd-metered “Dark Blues.” The arrangement shows the lasting influence of Vogt’s freshman year with Eyes Manouche and Ode, whose complex rhythms and serpentine melodies, features of traditional Balkan music, opened his ears to a wider world of music. Fender Rhodes and what sounds like synth guitar put the track on nodding terms with fusion. “Bass Etude #1” is Vogt’s only bass solo on the album, lyrical, quietly virtuosic and at only 2:45 leaving us very much wanting more. At 7:03, closer “Eleanor Rigby” is Awakening’s longest track. Vogt’s imaginative arrangement turns one of the Beatles’ most familiar tunes into something entirely fresh, as did his previous reconstructions of Beatles classics “Come Together” and, with ATLYS, “A Day In The Life” and “Imagine.”
Throughout the album, Vogt gives a masterclass in how to balance tradition with innovation, so adhering to the late New Yorker critic Witney Balliett’s description of jazz as “the sound of surprise.”
Album Release Show + Birthday Party
8-10pm CDT, July 17, 2024Fulton Street Collective
1821 West Hubbard Street
Chicago, IL 60622
In the analogue age, it would have been hard for a musician as omni-dimensional as Chicago’s Andrew Vogt to build a credible profile embracing the sweep of genres in which he is active. Back then, music was tribal and monotheistic and binary choices were as complicated as it got. There were jazz players and rock players, acoustic bassists and electric bassists, and so on and so forth and ne’er the twain should meet. But in the streaming era, Bela Bartok, John Coltrane and Patsy Cline engage in random sonic frottage with each other and nobody is offended. The idea of off-limits bedmates has passed. In jazz, the new inclusiveness allows border-hopping musicians such as Vogt (or pianist Julius Rodriguez or the late, great Chicago-based trumpeter, Jaimie Branch) to thrive.
Born, bred and buttered in Chicagoland, Vogt first recorded in 2010 as a member of Balkan jazz ensemble Eyes Manouche and Bosnian rock band Ode. More about that below. Vogt has since played on over 60 albums across a range of jazz, beyond-jazz and non-jazz styles. These include recordings as a member of Chicago Soul Jazz Collective and the jam band-inclined Bonzo Squad, and others with his own free-improv group For Free and fusion outfit AV Club. Then there are collaborations with the string quartet ATLYS, spanning jazz, classical and electronic dance music, and a series of audacious singles reconfiguring Beatles hits as beyond-category instrumentals. In 2022, with Americana singer/songwriter B Forrest, Vogt even had a hit bluegrass single, “Oihana.” And all this only scratches the surface of his far-ranging output.
But, surprisingly, among all this manifold activity, Awakening is Vogt’s first full-length album of acoustic-bass jazz, a genre in which, in performance in Chicago clubs, he has developed an enviable reputation. Now, at last, listeners further afield can hear what all the fuss is about.
The album features a cohort of Chicagoan heavy hitters who share Vogt’s cross-border inclinations. The core sextet is acoustic and electric keyboards player Stu Mindeman (Kurt Elling), tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi (Bon Iver), trumpeter Quentin Coaxum, alternating guitarists Joel Ream and Hans Luchs, and drummer Christian Euman (Jacob Collier). Guests include the ATLYS string quartet, singer and lyricist Sarah Marie Young and poet and spoken word artist Sharon Irving. Tracked during the same period as AV Club, For Free and For Free Vol. 2, Vogt’s decision to add strings to two tracks and vocals to one, followed in short order by the pandemic, meant that Awakening’s release was delayed (though four digital-only singles were pulled from it in 2022-23).
Awakening includes six Vogt originals and an outstanding reinvention of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby,” the album’s closer. “Awakening” is a musical version of a slow-burning yogic sun salutation, building in intensity from Mindeman’s rubato introduction into an explosive climax focused on an extended solo by Laurenzi. Comparators exist in Pharoah Sanders’ and Alice Coltrane's 1970s cosmic jazz. Up next, “Wes’ Waltz” has a more complex structure, its narrative inspired, as Vogt explains in the liner notes, by personal experiences of the cycle of life and death.
The tempo accelerates on “Hammerspace,” which features an assertive solo from Laurenzi and a full on in-your-face one from Euman. “Dusk” is a lush ballad featuring Sarah Marie Young and Sharon Irving. Laurenzi and Coaxum’s obbligatos enhance the mood, framed by the ATLYS strings. ATLYS return for the odd-metered “Dark Blues.” The arrangement shows the lasting influence of Vogt’s freshman year with Eyes Manouche and Ode, whose complex rhythms and serpentine melodies, features of traditional Balkan music, opened his ears to a wider world of music. Fender Rhodes and what sounds like synth guitar put the track on nodding terms with fusion. “Bass Etude #1” is Vogt’s only bass solo on the album, lyrical, quietly virtuosic and at only 2:45 leaving us very much wanting more. At 7:03, closer “Eleanor Rigby” is Awakening’s longest track. Vogt’s imaginative arrangement turns one of the Beatles’ most familiar tunes into something entirely fresh, as did his previous reconstructions of Beatles classics “Come Together” and, with ATLYS, “A Day In The Life” and “Imagine.”
Throughout the album, Vogt gives a masterclass in how to balance tradition with innovation, so adhering to the late New Yorker critic Witney Balliett’s description of jazz as “the sound of surprise.”
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