Return of a Continental Drifter
Even within the Chicago music scene, where a healthy work ethic is expected, reedist and composer Scott Rosenberg had a reputation as a busy, busy guy. He moved to Chicago in August 1999, and by early 2001 he was improvising with local and visiting artists, putting on concerts in a Ukrainian Village coach house (dubbed the Brick House), and writing music for and organizing three distinct groups. The 25-piece Rosenberg Creative Orchestra, the five-member Skronktet, and the quartet Red all made impressive live debuts, drawing large crowds to clubs like the HotHouse and the Empty Bottle and generating positive press in this paper and the Sun-Times.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But just when it seemed that Rosenberg had established himself, he split. In the summer of 2001, he and his girlfriend at the time moved their possessions to New York City and embarked on a round-the-globe trip they’d planned nearly a year earlier. They spent about four months in Latin America, but the events of September 11 threw a wrench in the works. After a brief respite in New York, Rosenberg went alone to Europe, playing free-improv gigs in France, Poland, Italy, and England. To his surprise, the single biggest factor in whatever draw he had seemed to be his connection to Chicago. “[That was] the real card that wound up being played for me wherever I went, by whoever was promoting the show,” he says. “I went and stayed at people’s houses and their entire record collection was made up of Chicago bands. There’s a real fetish.”
Rosenberg says he conceived the project right after his Creative Orchestra gave its sole performance in March 2001. That project’s dense, shifting textures and emphasis on sound as sound acknowledged the influence of composers like Anthony Braxton, with whom Rosenberg had studied as an undergrad at Wesleyan, and Stockhausen. But the night after that concert, Rosenberg says, he lay awake until 4 AM thinking about doing something smaller that reflected his jazz influences more directly. This initial impulse was only reinforced by his experiences with contemporary European improvisers.
Postscript
Last Thursday at the Prodigal Son, dancehall-influenced art rockers the Eternals introduced a new member–John Herndon of Tortoise and Isotope 217. Herndon played drums on three songs and keyboards or percussion when founding member Dan Fliegel was behind the kit. Fliegel’s leaving the band in anticipation of the birth of his second child in October, but Damon Locks says the band will probably play at least one more show with both drummers. The Eternals have a new five-song 12-inch, The Black Museum, on the local Aesthetics label; Fliegel plays on it and Herndon mixed some of the tracks. Another EP is due this year on the Philadelphia label Antifaz, and the band’s sophomore full-length is due in the spring on Aesthetics.
