Chad Taylor, Chicago Underground Duo, Review, Rob Mazurek, Thrill Jockey
by Andrea Aguzzi

In Praise Of Shadow by Chicago Underground Duo, Thrill Jockey, 2006


Premise. In this record you won’t even find a guitar. Percussions, electronics and trumpet yes, but no guitar at all. So why is it on this blog? First because sometimes is interesting to get further in the “borderlands”, second because sometimes is good to listen to something away from the circle of the six ropes, third because Rob Mazurek is for a long time one of the most interesting musicians in action in the Chicago’s scene and every his records brings that particular vibration that belongs to the jobs that are countersigned for originality and intelligence. behind him an impressive and massive structure of works in trio, duo, soloist or for ensemble, all develops with a new generation of musicians united in the intent and interest to overcome the generic divisions between genres aiming, among improvisation and electronics, among post rock and atonal blues to the assimilation of the mythical inheritance of the jazz-ensambles of the 70’s, through the investigation of sonority influenced by the European (French, northern, Teutonic) search.

The Chicago Underground Duo is one of the most representative groups of such renaissance. Theirs In Praise of Shadows, cd recorded in four days, is the happy testimony of a telepathic feeling, of the trust for the inseparable collaboration with John McEntire in post-production, of the desire still to keep on exploring, to increase the sonorous baggage of Africans and Asian instruments. A talisman with a lot of faces, from the wide musical horizons, always exciting and original. Long life!