The Rempis Percussion Quartet

ABOUT

The Rempis Percussion Quartet is a free-improvising whirlwind that draws inspiration from a shared interest in West African and Latin American rhythms, coupled with American funk and free jazz. Using these influences, the band creates spontaneous music that nevertheless maintains a focus on ensemble motion and compositional structures. Led by saxophonist Dave Rempis (The Engines, Ballister, Kuzu, Rempis/Abrams/Ra) the band originally formed for a house party in April 2004, and their performances maintain an unabashedly raucous energy based on relentless grooves and unrestrained blowing, tempered with occasional moments of quiet balladry. With founding members Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly still in the drum thrones, the band has also featured renowned Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten since 2009, a soloist who provides the perfect virtuosic counterpoint and drive to Rempis’ horn playing. 

This quartet has toured regularly in both the US and Europe, with North American tours in 2006, 2007, and 2015, and European tours in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2016, including several major European festival performances.  The band has also released eight records, including the limited edition Circular Logic (Utech Records 2005) Rip Tear Crunch (482 Music 2006) Hunter-Gatherers (482 Music – 2007), The Disappointment of Parsley (Not Two – 2009), Montreal Parade (482 Music – 2011), Phalanx (Aerophonic – 2013), Cash And Carry (Aerophonic – 2015).  and Cochonnerie (Aerophonic - 2017). Their most recent release Sud Des Alpes came out on Aerophonic Records in April of 2021.

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PRESS

“As agile as it is rawboned, the band incorporates sounds ranging from the heated folk expression of ethiopian saxophone legend Getachew Merkurya to Latin accents to screech effects…this is one improvising group that does consistently see the forest for the trees.”  –Lloyd Sachs, JAZZWISE

“Rempis covers all the bases, getting down and dirty on baritone, preaching on tenor, but still skronking and squealing as the moment demands.  When drums, bass and saxophone lock onto a riff, they don’t let go, constituting a unit of fearsome power.”   -John Sharpe, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“Spacing is what makes this quartet thrive, as its playful approach is best felt in the balanced transitions. The harmonic shadings twist and bend, but it’s the way the band allows tension to fester — during (almost) quiet, contemplative moments — that really allows this kind of free jazz to grow.”   -Otis Taylor, THE COLUMBIA STATE

“The name of Dave Rempis’s latest group is fair warning: never before has the saxophonist led a band that hit this hard.”   –Bill Meyer, CHICAGO READER

“…one of the most exciting albums of the year….(Rempis) understands the power of controlled freedom in music, so that this music, even in its wildest moments, retains a sense of order.
–Marc Meyers, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“Dave Rempis proves himself to be a strong leader and his playing is, as always, powerfully enjoyable.  All of these men are pillars of the underground Chicago jazz/improv scene,  but it’s in this configuration that their prodigious talents are best expressed.  Needless to say, this is a fantastic record, the record all fans of these fantastic musicians have been waiting for.”
-Justin Glick, WNUR

“The Rempis Percussion Quartet’s tremendously propulsive Afrobeat grooves, unending swing, and even breathtakingly quiet moments seem to draw from a bottomless well of energy.”
-Matthew Lurie, TIMEOUT CHICAGO

“It’s clear that this is a band which has allowed itself the time and space to develop as a unit, and the music is accordingly happening on a deeply profound level……..the strengths and musical inclinations of the members have become symbiotic.”
-Nic Jones, ALL ABOUT JAZZ