Around the turn of the century trumpeter/composer Rob Mazurek and percussionist/composer Chad Taylor thrilled us with a long run of inventive albums from their Chicago Underground project with Duos, Trios and Quartets all under that banner. In an intertwining web of musical crossover with other Chicago bands like the seminal Tortoise, and their own Isotope 217 group they led a hot stream of music that flowed from that City. At the time it was amongst the most progressive music of it’s era and in retrospect it laid the ground for today’s great Chicago scene and specifically the brilliant label International Anthem and the many projects it boasts. Fittingly IA is the home of this new release.
Mazurek and Taylor have worked continuously since those times, notably as part of Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra. But this is their first Duo project since 2014 and it feels like a timely return and a work that both exhibits the foundations they laid and the progressive spirit that continues to burn bright.
“Rob is my longest collaborator and also one of my best friends,” says Taylor, who first performed with Mazurek at a club in Chicago in 1988, aged 15.
“When it feels right we do it,” says Mazurek of the gaps in duo activity. “We have worked together and have been friends for a long time. This creates a kind of continuity not only in the music, but in our lives.”
This is Our Chosen One