Drummer Mike Reed joins forces with equally adventurous performers from Chicago: poet Marvin Tate, sonic adventurer Ben Lamar Gay and experimental rock trio Bitchin Bajas. Reed based this project on a story in The New York Times about a resident named George Bell, a hoarder who lived in seclusion. All feelings about isolated lives were channelled through poetry and music that touches on minimal music, krautrock and the liberating jazz of Don Cherry en Pharoah Sanders.

As a drummer, composer and founder of the Constellation club and the influential Pitchfork Music Festival, Mike Reed is a key figure in the Chicago music scene, where he engages in regular collaborations with a variety of young musicians as well as with veterans such as Roscoe Mitchell and Wadada Leo Smith. Spoken word artist Marvin Tate and cornet player Ben Lamar Gay were also part of Reed’s Flesh & Bone project, which has appeared on our stage. Bitchin Bajas played here as part of the Minimal Music Festival.

Rob Frye tenor saxophone/flute/percussion, Ben LaMar Gay cornet/flugelhorn/percussion, Cooper Crain guitar/synthesizer, Dan Quinlivan synthesizer, Marvin Tate vocals, Mike Reed drums/percussion