Ken Vandermark
Ken Vandermark (USA, 1964) is a renowned avant-garde composer, improviser, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, and writer. He has collaborated and recorded with key figures from the AACM (Fred Anderson), New York’s Downtown scene (Ikue Mori), FMP (Peter Brötzmann), British improvisation (Paul Lytton), post-punk (Terrie Ex), Ethiopian music (Getachew Mekuria), and Japanese free jazz (Akira Sakata). Since 2012, he has directed the Catalytic Sound cooperative and runs Audiographic Records (founded 2014). In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his contributions to music.
Calendar
8:00 pm
Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble: San Antonio, Slab Cinema Arthouse
In late May of 2025, Chris Cogburn in partnership with No Idea Festival hosted Ken Vandermark at Monk’s Jazz Club in Austin for a weekend residency. Cogburn and Vandermark assembled […]
7:30 pm
Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble: Austin, Monk’s Jazz Club (show 1)
In late May of 2025, Chris Cogburn in partnership with No Idea Festival hosted Ken Vandermark at Monk’s Jazz Club in Austin for a weekend residency. Cogburn and Vandermark assembled […]
9:30 pm
Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble: Austin, Monk’s Jazz Club (show 2)
In late May of 2025, Chris Cogburn in partnership with No Idea Festival hosted Ken Vandermark at Monk’s Jazz Club in Austin for a weekend residency. Cogburn and Vandermark assembled […]
7:00 pm
Chicago/Texas Sound Ensemble: Dallas, The Wild Detectives
In late May of 2025, Chris Cogburn in partnership with No Idea Festival hosted Ken Vandermark at Monk’s Jazz Club in Austin for a weekend residency. Cogburn and Vandermark assembled […]
Latest Recordings & Releases
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October Flowers for Joe McPhee
Ken Vandermark
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El Infierno Musical II
Christof Kurzmann, Katinka Kleijn, Lia Kohl, Dave Rempis, Ken Vandermark
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Pivot
Mats Gustafsson, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor, Ken Vandermark
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Fourth Atlas
Ken Vandermark & Tim Daisy
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Broadcast Transformer
Edition Redux
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This Is Not A Holiday!
Terrie Ex & Ken Vandermark
Recent Posts
Experiments 2026: #3 & #4/work with Ben Hall
Experiments 2026: #3 & #4/work with Ben Hall. 2026 has included a number of shifts in creative strategy for me. Starting in reverse from this spring to the beginning of […]
Living Poets Society
Mixing material with Nick Broste by a sextet with Beth McDonald (tuba/electronics), Erez Dessel (keyboards), Josh Berman (cornet), Lily Finnegan (drums), and Nick Macri (acoustic/electric bass); with readings by poets […]
Autumn 2025-Spring 2026: Influences & Impacts
Though the last half year has focused on the performance of lots of exciting music at home and abroad, much inspiration came from other art sources and focused listening to […]
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Musician (improviser/composer) who plays saxophones and clarinets, and works with a variety of styles and artists.
