By Ferruccio Martinotti
Could it possibly be something better than good music? Yes it could: good
music with a good story behind. Take this for instance. Around 20 years ago
a patrol of free jazz aces, Jim Baker (piano, Arp synthesizer, viola), Mars
Williams (saxophones, toys), Brian Sandstrom (double bass, electric guitar,
trumpet), Steve Hunt (drums, percussion) kicked- off a new band, taking the
name from an 1841 book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions. It was an early
study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles MacKay, debunking
subjects like alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling,
haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and
religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetisers, murder through
poisoning, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great
cities and relics (!!!). After a couple of years spent in weekly gigs at a
spot in Chicago called Hotti Biscotti, the quartet found a regular Monday
night session at the small upstairs room of Beat Kitchen, a mandatory stop
for devoted fans of Chicago’s creative music scene, where they have
maintained their residency for more than 15 years.
It would be pretty
ungenerous to overlook the role they played in the contribution to pave the
road for the new generation of Chicagoan players that blossomed from the 90s
on. Separately or together, they’ve played with Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred
Anderson, Hal Russel, Nicol Mitchell, The Pharaohs, Shawn Colvin, Nicholas
Tremulis and Tortoise. Mars was an interesting artist, with his musical soul
pretty equally shared between jazz and post-punk. Son of a trumpeter, he
played classical clarinet for ten years, then moved to saxophone under the
influence of Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, attending
courses at the AACM with Roscoe Michell and Anthony Braxton. If on one hand
this upbringing drove him to play with Peter Brotzmann Tentet, The
Vandermark 5, Liquid Soul and NGR Ensemble, on the other hand he spent long
time, along the 80s, as a permanent member of The Waitresses and Psychedelic
Furs, as well as blowing the reeds for the likes of Billy Idol, Power
Station, Billy Squier, Massacre and Ministry.
Due to Mars’ absence while on
tour with his other projects, the band invited Edward Wilkerson Jr. (AACM
past president and teacher, founder and director of the famous octet 8 Bold
Souls and member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble) to hold the reeds
garrison. After the self-titled album, released in 2007 and the sophomore
“Apocryphal fire in the warehouse, and other explanations” (2011), the Fates
entered the game. Mars Williams was diagnosed with late-stage cancer when
EPD booked a concert at Elastic Arts Foundation at the end of August 2023.
He survived less than three months more but nevertheless was on the bill,
and so was Edward Wilkerson Jr. to deploy a powerful unit of five members,
The Last Quintet. To breathe the atmosphere of such a magical and, now,
historical night, that’s what the liner notes report: “Nobody expected
Williams to play the way he did. More than an honorary appearance, this was
Mars at the top of his game, playing, as it were, for his life. With
Sandstrom switching between bass, trumpet and electric guitar, Wilkerson
doubling on saxophone and clarinet as well as oud and didgeridoo, Baker on
ARP synthesizer and piano as well as violin, and Hunt on all sorts of
percussion, Williams’ table of toys and his blazing soprano, alto and tenor
saxophone were in perfect company. A band that could freely improvise open
structures and instantly compose unforeseen suites, while maintaining a
level of intensity and intrigue on par with the saxophonists’ mastery. This
Last Quintet bore the marks of a classic concert. Which it was”. Luckily for
us, Dave Zuchowski was there to record the concert in all its two-sets,
beautiful, moving glory and the usual, priceless wisdom of Corbett vs.
Dempsey made the rest. A good story, I told you.