George and I are very excited to be performing with bassist Tatsu Aoki and guitarist Rami Attasi at the Hairpin Arts Center, 2810 N. Milwaukee, December 19 at 7pm. This ensemble is an experimental project that Tatsu has put together. It will be a very special concert of improvised music. I’ve been wanting to play with and have had immense respect for Tatsu for years, and so I am really looking forward to performing with him. Details are below.

The Regulators are so excited to have been invited to perform at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (HPJF). What an incredible opportunity for us to show the world our new music. We have been having an incredible summer tour. Capping off our busy summer with the HPJF is a true honor. You can catch us at the Smart Museum, Saturday, September 28th at 2:30pm. You will be regulated and the funk will be restored!

photo by Harvey S. Tillis

The Regulators are extremely excited to be playing the Jazz Showcase on Tuesday, August 20. It’s a free show sponsored by WDCB. We will be playing all original material including some new compositions. Don’t miss this special evening.

After Dark, a Von Freeman tribute sextet, has returned to Andy’s Jazz Club every Tuesday at 9:30pm and 11:00pm for 2019. This band performs the music that most influenced Von Freeman as a youth. We do songs that formed his musical thinking according to what he told me and others and to what George Freeman tells me in our interviews. We explore compositions by Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker, but with our own take. Geof Bradfield, Scott Burns, and I have all contributed arrangements for three saxophones and rhythms section. Of course, we always open each night playing one fo Von’s composition on the blues, “After Dark,” which he recorded with Andrew Hill in 1956 on the Ping label.

After Dark, at Andy’s, 11 E. Hubbard, Tuesdays at 9:30pm and 11:00pm, is:

saxes: Geof Bradfield, Scott Burns, and Rajiv Halim

Rhythm section: Dana Hall, Dennis Carroll, Mike Allemana

Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune recently wrote a nice article about us, click here.

On Friday, December 14, I will premiere an original five movement composition I call Vonology. After years of performing with Von and researching his presence in the world, I have put together an original musical expression about my mentor and friend. In my career, travels, and research I have conversed for hours and hours about Von with Steve Coleman, with countless Chicagoans as they remember moments of his solos or his stories of life and music, with George Freeman in his living room while he remembers childhood moments and gigs, and with Amsterdam musicians who speak passionately about Von’s affect on their music. From my years of playing with him and hearing the profound stories people tell, I have composed a piece that feeds off of Von’s large presence in the world, both in the past and as it lives in the present.

Von spoke often in symbolic language. One time he explained to me, after I asked him what he played in a crazy solo, that he imagined a tonic of a key surrounded by a rainbow and that he played in the rainbow, but always making sure to return to the tonic. Expressing musical processes in this way was an integral feature of conversing with him, as people’s memories have confirmed to me. Von was deeply versed in the Bible (the book of knowledge, as he called it) and astrology which he both used as symbolic systems to understand and explain music and humanity.

For this composition, I combined astrological symbolism and musical intuition to inform my musical process. Brian Allemana, a highly skilled in astrologer as well as my brother, made Von’s chart and interpreted the symbols (Von is a Libra, born October 3rd, 1923). I assigned pitches and rhythms to the most compelling meanings as they connect shapes within houses, planets, and other Zodiac signs. The result is a long form composition that combines interpretations from people of different jazz communities, my brother’s astrological vision, and my personal feelings for Von, all filtered through my musical vision, something Von always pushed me and countless of his horses to pursue.

Please come join us for this premiere:

Friday, December 14th, at 7pm at theSouth Shore Cultural Center, 7059 South Shore Drive.

More info: see the Jazz Institute of Chicago. I would like to thank Lauren Deutsch and the Jazz Institute of Chicago for their generous support of this project. Please become a member of this great organization.

Vonology:

Mike Allemana: Guitar and compositions

Victor Garcia: Trumpet

Greg Ward: Alto Sax

Geof Bradfield: Tenor Sax

Kendall Moore: Trombone

Tomeka Reid: Cello

Matt Ferguson: bass

Michael Raynor: drums

Voices: Sue Demel, Lindsay Weinberg, Alton Smith, and Bill Brickey

Conductor and author of astrological texts: Brian Allemana

Dear friends,

There are few musicians one meets during one’s career who think, hear, and improvise music in such synchronicity it is like the musician is inside your brain, hearing exactly the same things. For me, Greg Fishman is one of those musicians. So I am truly excited that he and I will be performing our duo project at Winter’s Jazz Club on Tuesday, July 31. Shows are at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Click here for more info. 

photo by Harvey S. Tillis

Through December, After Dark, a Von Freeman inspired project, will be performing Tuesday nights at 9:30pm at Andy’s Jazz Cub, 10 E. Hubbard. We are performing the music of Von’s three main influences, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.  Come check out this awesome band:

Geof Bradfield, Scott Burns, and Rajiv Halim, saxes

Mike Allemana, guitar

Dennis Carroll, bass

Dana Hall, drums and cymbals

We’re back at it, our 5th annual birthday celebration for George Freeman, who turned 91 on April 10. Bernard Purdie and Pete Benson will be with us again on Friday April 13 and Saturday April 14. Come on out and you can get an autographed copy of our new album on Ears&Eyes Record

s.

Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune wrote a touching article about George’s 91 years.

And WTTW did a wonderful story on George and Southport Records.

August 18 has arrived! The George Freeman/Mike Allemana Organ Quartet with special guest Bernard Purdie officially release Live at the Green Mill on Ears&Eyes Records. It was a long process for George and I: recorded by David Zuchowski at the Green Mill in April 2015, going through 6 sets of music to select just the right tracks, mixing, editing, and mastering with Brian Schwab (see Howard Reich’s article); and putting the finishing touches on the release with Matthew Golombisky at Ears&Eyes Records. It was worth all the work and sacrifice for our first album with organist Pete Benson and one of American music’s legends, Bernard Purdie.

Order your copy now (both vinyl and digital download with bonus tracks. Vinyl ships in September)

George and I will be celebrating this release and George’s 90th birthday at the Chicago Jazz Festival on August 31 at 6:30pm in Millennium Park.

photo by Harvey Tillis