Update: November 9, 2025
About to embark on a tour in Europe with Paal Nilssen-Love and organized by him. This means lots of intense and inspiring music (13 concerts), lots of traveling (8 countries), and 2 days off- what else could I possibly expect with Paal at the helm?
November 15: Gothenburg, Sweden; CLUB iDEAL, 7:00pm
November 17: London, England; Café Oto, 7:30pm
November 18: London, England; Hundred Years Gallery, 8:00pm
November 19: Brighton, England; safehouse (with Metcalfe, Edwards, Somervell), 7:30pm
November 20: Munich, Germany; Halle 6, 8:30pm
November 21: Schorndorf, Germany: Manufaktur, 8:30pm
November 22: St. Georgen, Austria; Kulturverein Tribüne, 7:30pm
November 23: Warsaw, Poland; Pardon, To Tu, 8:30pm
November 24: Krakow, Poland; Alchemia, 8:00pm
November 26: Oslo, Norway; Kafé Hærverk; 8:00pm
November 27: Stockholm, Sweden; Rönnells, 7:30pm
November 28: Helsinki, Finland; We Jazz Festival, Café Shade, 6pm
November 29: Helsinki, Finland, We Jazz Festival, Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamo, w/Tommi Keränen
Full concert details: https://kenvandermark.com/all_events/
Though focused on getting ready for this next series of performances, I’d like to acknowledge and thank Joe McPhee and John and Jim of Corbett vs. Dempsey for encouraging me to compose and record a new album of solo music, a set of compositions and improvisations dedicated to Joe, entitled “October Flowers” and recently released: https://vandermark1.bandcamp.com/album/october-flowers-for-joe-mcphee
There was a huge celebration recognizing the contributions of the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series, programming that John and I worked on together for almost ten years, documented now by “The Bottle Tapes” (a six CD box set also just issued by Corbett vs. Dempsey: https://corbettvsdempsey.com/records/the-bottle-tapes/) that took place at the Bottle as part of their 33 1/3 Anniversary on Saturday, November 1st. It included performances by a surprise trio with Paal Nilssen-Love, Clark Sommers, and Edward Wilkerson Jr.; a duo by Damon Locks and me (with Damon collaging materials from the “October Flowers” recordings in real time); a solo by Dorothy Carlos; and concluded with the duo of Paal and Joe McPhee. It was a beautiful night and, thankfully, a victory lap of sorts for the music and its ongoing history, rather than a nostalgia trip.
There was a smaller celebration the next evening in Sawyer, Michigan that was, for me anyway, just as significant. It was held at Out There, an outstanding venue and restaurant. After traveling and being hosted in Europe and China for most of October, to be treated with such respect at a place so close to home on my first visit to the space meant an immense amount. I played the compositions from “October Flowers” with Joe and Paal in the audience, alongside John and Jim from CvsD. Though the setting was more intimate than the one from the night before, it was also more intense to be standing there alone, presenting music written for the person who inspired it in the room. Joe and Paal played breathtaking music during their set together.
There was something extraordinary and personal that took place that Sunday: in February of 1996, Joe’s solo performance and trio set with Kent Kessler and me toward the start of the series at the Bottle really helped launch it; it also launched years of opportunities to collaborate with Joe in a variety of contexts, with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, the trio with Susan Alcorn, and recording duo improvisations for his album of poetry, “Musings of a Bahamian Son (CvsD) among them. As I sat with Joe while he packed up his horn at the end of the night and before I traveled with Ben Hall to work with him in Detroit, it wasn’t as if things had come full circle after nearly three decades, the motion was centrifugal, continuing to move out, like the piece “Shakey Jake”; recorded by Joe in 1970 at Vassar College in his hometown of Poughkeepsie for a small label called CjRecord Productions that ended up on the soundtrack for an internationally viewed and acclaimed show, “Severance”, more than a half century later.
[photo by Ioannis Tsirkas]