Dave Rempis has a big, burly sound on saxophone, and his instinct as an improviser tends toward rough epiphany. His Aerophonic Records is a model of sustainable scale. We recently caught up over a couple rounds at The Green Mill, talking about the avant-garde sound, the Chicago scene, and how he keeps his operation going.
I first heard Rempis in the late ‘90s as a member of The Vandermark 5, a killer band that I eventually covered in New York: here’s my NY Times review (gift link) of a show at Tonic in 2006. I’ve closely followed Dave’s work since, notably on Aerophonic, which is about to drop its 44th release: Propulsion, featuring a quartet with Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, Joshua Abrams on bass and Tyler Damon on drums.
This summer, while I was in town for an event with Brad Mehldau at the Chicago Humanities Festival, I reached out to Dave and suggested we grab a drink. He had just come off a tour, so the timing was just right. So think of this audio episode as pulling up a barstool and eavesdropping on a cool conversation — our very first, in fact. I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.
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Bar Talk with Dave Rempis