Hoffman Estates by Alan Licht & Loren Mazzacane Connors

Over twenty years ago, Loren and I flew to Chicago to spend a day in the studio with Jim O’Rourke and a big group of hand-picked Chicago musicians to do a series of improvisations that would form the basis of the Drag City LP Hoffman Estates (1998). From what I understand that session was the first meeting of Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor, who would soon form the Chicago Underground Duo, and several other participants would say later that this was a turning point for them. I'm sure this was the first time I met Ken Vandermark, Darin Gray, and Josh Abrams, all of whom I would work with again; it was also when I first met Rob Mazurek, and I later played in his group Mandarin Movie. Jim, Loren and I talked about Miles Davis’ “He Loved Him Madly” and Ornette Coleman’s Chappaqua Suite as reference points (later Jim told me he was also thinking about Edward Vesala's ECM album Satu); Jim did his best Teo Macero tribute in editing it down and doing additional overdubs later, finishing after a week of non-stop work. You can find an interview with me and Loren about the album and a DownBeat review by John Corbett at my website, link in bio. The studio was located in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago, hence the title.

Guitarist from Love Child, the Blue Humans, Run On, Text of Light, Lee Ranaldo & the Dust

www.alanlicht.com
www.alanlicht.tumblr.com