Black Diamond

Friday, May 31, 2024

Show: $25 Showtimes: 7:15 - 8:45 (Doors Open 6:45) 9:30 - 11:00 (Doors Open 9:00) Artie Black - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet Hunter Diamond - tenor saxophone, flute Matt Ulery - bass Neil Hemphill - drums Black Diamond thrives on the chemistry and compositions of saxophonists Artie Black and Hunter Diamond. They met while studying under David Baker and Tom Walsh at Indiana University. A mutual admiration for the collaborative recordings of saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh led them to experiment with their own two-tenor palette, and it quickly became apparent that the variance in their tonal and stylistic approaches created a captivating sense of balance. This dynamic has allowed them the unique compositional opportunity to write for the group in a way that is both deeply personal and instrumentally uncommon. In Chicago, the band has been featured in residency at Andy's Jazz Club, The Drake Hotel, and The Whistler. Other performances include the 2018 Chicago Jazz Festival, and associations with the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Sounds of the City Workshop, the Anagram Series at Elastic Arts, and the Chicago Jazz Composers Collective. Recently, the band has been on three U.S. tours to Florida, Pennsylvania, and the Pacific-Northwest. As active music educators, the group has collectively been featured as guest clinicians and lecturers of jazz and ethnomusicology at Slippery Rock University (Slippery Rock, PA), Whitworth University(Spokane, WA), Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA), and Knox College (Galesburg, IL). August 2017 marked the release of Black Diamond's debut recording , "Mandala," on Shifting Paradigm Records. Featuring bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Neil Hemphill, the album contains nine original works by Black and Diamond. The title is inspired by the Vajrayana Buddhist practice of sand painting. The intent of a mandala is to form a representation of the enlightened mind through intricate patterning of layered grains of colored sand. The music on "Mandala" represents our grains laid; our mandala composed. "Mandala" was listed as an editor's pick in Downbeat magazine in August 2017. Black Diamond's second album, “Chant” (Shifting Paradigm), was recorded live at The Whistler in Chicago and released in March 2019 on Shifting Paradigm Records. This recording built on the momentum of "Mandala" and further crystalized the band's sound. The nature of the live recording leads to a heightened level of energy and collective improvisation. In praise of "Chant," the Chicago Reader describes Black Diamond's ability "...to affirm the importance of discovering the commonalities between mediums that are bound by creativity and growth." The third release from Black Diamond, "A Held Space" (Woolgathering Records, 2020) features Black and Diamond in a series of improvisational duets whose raw material was edited and produced to create a collage that represents their longstanding chemistry. Jazz Journal UK wrote that "Black and Diamond’s augmenting of their in-the-moment work stops short of straightforward overdubbing and has the effect of deepening their spontaneity and the acute degree to which they are a meeting of musical minds." Spring 2024 begins a new chapter in the Black Diamond story with the release of their new album "Furniture of the Mind Rearranging" on Helsinki- based record label We Jazz. This 2 LP collection of new works by the group broadens and deepens the distinctive sound cultivated on their first 3 releases. Available May 24th, 2024 The album features 11 tunes by the quartet and an additional side of 2 duo improvisations by Black and Diamond.