Doors: 7pm
COVID PROTOCOLS: All our staff are fully vaccinated, and we ask that our patrons be vaccinated as well. Our staff will be masked, and we encourage our audience to wear masks as much as possible.
Advance tickets can only be purchased online-we do not sell advance tickets at the venue. Refunds are not available within 48 hours of the event. Tickets do not guarantee seating during shows at the Royal Room. Seating is first come first served. The Royal Room is All Ages until 10pm.
PNL (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds), one of the most prolific duos in improvised music today, join us once again on Earshot’s stage.
A Ken Vandermark and PNL pairing promises to be an exhilarating listening experience. PNL’s intensity on drums is matched by Vandermark’s on reeds; combining extreme and swift rhythms with deconstructed then reassembled melodic phrases, the duo represents the highest calibre of free jazz and improvisation, while often eschewing genres themselves. As is evident in their past efforts together, Vandermark and PNL’s programs vary greatly in texture and mood – ranging from lung-bursting ferocity to chamber-like solemnity, while also rarely failing to realize a good opportunity to get funky.
PNL grew up in a Norwegian jazz club that his parents ran, and from an early age was drawn to play the drums, as his father had been. By 20 he was a renowned percussionist, and from there his reputation has soared. He has for several years been among the most vaunted of instrumentalists in improvised music.
Ken Vandermark, a multi-reedist, composer, MacArthur Fellow, and community organizer, has poured his energy back into the vibrant Chicago jazz scene where he rose to acclaim. Yet despite his accomplishments as an organizational leader, it is Vandermark’s massive body of work as a composer and improviser that has earned him such widespread renown.
Vandermark did not play with PNL until 2000. Their lasting collaboration began with the formation of the ensemble School Days, and soon carried over to the trio FME, which also includes bass player Nate McBride. For Vandermark and PNL the chemistry was immediately apparent, and it was only natural to transition into the duo format. They first explored this setting in 2002, recording the powerful, Dual Pleasure, for Oslo’s smalltownsupersound label. For good measure they did it again a year later, releasing the two-disc set Dual Pleasure 2. Since then they have released several albums and worked together in several memorable contexts, including The Thing with Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.