Search Chicago Jazz
Jazz Calendar
There are no shows posted for today. Please check back soon.
Zach Brock Returns Home to Chicago
Zach Brock Returns Home to Chicago
Date Posted: August 13 2011
Written By: Chicago Jazz
|
 Bookmark it!
|
Currently on a national tour to support his latest CD, The Magic Number, violinist/composer Zach Brock returns home to Chicago at the invitation of his mentor Orbert Davis, co-founder and conductor of the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic (CJP). Davis is the featured Chicago artist for 2011's Chicago Jazz Festival. Zach will perform at the festival as a featured soloist with Davis's CJP September 3-4 and also on September 4 with his former bandmate, composer/instrumentalist Matt Ulery, who composed a tune for Zach's wedding and who heads the band Loom that Zach performs in regularly.
Zach met Davis in the mid-90s when he was earning his bachelor's in violin performance (classical) at Northwestern University. Explains Zach, Northwestern had just started a master's program in jazz education. Orbert was in the first class and so was Patricia Barber, which was pretty amazing. Each master's candidate had to pair up with an undergrad, and Orbert selected me. We were both coming from the perspective that strings in jazz shouldn't be treated differently, in a pedagogical sense, and we worked on theory, time feel and crafting lines. Lot's of Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker.
After Davis finished his stint at Northwestern, he asked Zach to join his group at the 1997 annual jazz conference, which was Zach's first high-profile professional exposure in the Chicago jazz community. Zach was asked back to play with both Orbert and Kurt Elling at Mayor Richard Daley's Millennium Celebration, which Zach notes, It was pretty memorable just for that but also because Buddy Guy drove onstage in a Cadillac! I'm not sure if Orbert is planning to record the new music he is writing for this summer's festival, but I sure hope so. It's a dream of mine to do a large-ensemble solo thing. It's the classical violinist in me, and to do it with him in Chicago, would really bring it all full circle.
The Magic Number, Zach's first recording as leader since 2007, distinguishes itself immediately through its unusual instrumentation: an acoustic trio with longtime bassist Matt Wigton and drummer Fred Kennedy that counterbalances the absence of a chordal instrument with the addition of wordless vocal harmonies, pitched percussion, and extended instrumental techniques. It is the first recording of Zach's to feature his own compositions alongside classic and modern jazz standards. Fans' donations through the micro-funding website Kickstarter funded the recording. The title of the CD was inspired by Zach's recent work as a sideman with the iconic Bob Dorough, a Miles Davis collaborator and Schoolhouse Rock! originator. The trio made their international debut at the 2010 Toronto Jazz Festival.
In 2005 The Coffee Achievers, Brock's first quartet - which also featured Wigton - made its Carnegie Hall debut at the invitation of trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. Six months later they played at the Ouro Preto Jazz Festival in Brazil, both of which raised his profile considerably on the international stage. Heralded by the Chicago Tribune asthe great bright hope for jazz violin and a Downbeat Magazine "Rising Star" pick 2005-2010 in the violin category, Zach is one of the most virtuosic and emotive leaders of contemporary jazz violin and has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia.
Zach's musical path: Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Zach grew up in a family of musicians and was performing publicly by the age of six. He became serious about jazz while in high school and moved to Chicago to continue his classical studies with the ulterior motive of participating in the city's jazz scene. As a sophomore in college, Brock was in a serious car accident that sidelined him for three years. By the time he finished his degree, Brock had established himself in jazz through the help of Orbert Davis and vocalist Betty Carter, whose Kennedy Center jazz residency Zach was selected for.
Since leaving Chicago in 2006 for New York City, Zach has followed a path which embraces not only jazz but also classical, world, punk and popular music. He tours with a diverse roster of artists that includes Snarky Puppy and the gypsy-punk band Mad Juana and has gained international exposure performing with Stanley Clarke, Grazyna Auguscik, Frank Vignola, Patricia Barber, Chris Potter, Dana Leong and Joel Harrison. He's won acclaim as a bandleader and admiration from both jazz purists and alternative music enthusiasts alike for his range. His repertoire includes re-workings of songs by Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Phil Markowitz, and Zbigniew Seifert in addition to an evolving catalogue of his own compositions.
Don't miss anymore Chicago Jazz Information.
Subscribe to Chicago Jazz magazine / Get A Free CD.
Subscribe to our Chicago Jazz weekly newsletter.
