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Concert Thu Mar 13 2008
Safe Crackers
Tonight, the Chicago Department for Cultural Affairs continues its "New Music/New Millennium" series of FREE avant garde jazz/improvised music concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center (77 East Randolph Street). Start time is 7 p.m.
Ben Allison (bass) fronts the quintet Man Size Safe, featuring Michael Blake (Saxophone), Steve Cardenas (Guitar), Ron Horton (Trumpet), and Michael Sarin (Drums). Although I was able to find no live footage of Man Size Safe online, you can check Ben's excellent web site above and click around for the Man Size Safe site. There are lots of lovely streaming songs to listen to while you click away - I'm not as versed in modern Jazz as I'd like to be, but I can hear some '80s Tim Berne, maybe some Either/Orchestra, and also the Spontaneous Music Ensemble's Karyobin, the way that album sounds like jazz, but also kind of sounds like a flock of migrating birds - abstract, but within a gentle framework. Man Size Safe is described as a "Cinematic, rock-meets-Americana sound." Guess that explains the guitar.
For more proof of powers, check out Ben Allison with a different lineup at the Green Mill below:
