AR051 | THE WALLS OF THE TEMPLE
ARE MADE OF SOUND :
Rempis/Abrams/Ra + Baker
Dave Rempis – soprano/alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Jim Baker - piano/electronics
Joshua Abrams – bass/electronics
Avreeayl Ra - drums/percussion
Released November 27th, 2026 | 2-CD SET
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DISC ONE
1. Episodic 45:02
2. Eso/Exo 24:13
DISC TWO
1. Teric 48:02
Recorded December 28th, 2025 at The Hungry Brain, Chicago
Recorded by Bill Harris
Mixed/mastered by Lasse Marhaug
Artwork & design by Lasse Marhaug
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Mike Reed, Josh Berman, and all of the staff at the Hungry Brain over the last 25 years, especially the loudmouth Italian bartender who shall remain unnamed
On March 19th, 1999, legendary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy played with his working trio at The Velvet Lounge at 2128 ½ S. Indiana Avenue in Chicago. Owned and operated by tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson, The Velvet Lounge was the central hub for adventurous jazz music in Chicago from 1993 until Fred passed in 2010. Music critic and journalist Peter Margasak previewed the concert in the alternative weekly Chicago Reader, and someone blew up a xeroxed copy of it that Lacy inscribed across the top. Afterwards, Fred proudly hung it on the wall for the duration of the club’s existence. It read, “THIS PLACE IS A TEMPLE” in all capital letters. Much like his stripped-down approach to saxophone, Lacy managed to sum it all up with just a few words.
Although this longstanding collaborative quartet didn’t start working as a unit until shortly after the Velvet was gone, the band’s roots stretch back through time to that sacred space. Back then, all four were working at the club regularly. Pianist Jim Baker and bassist Joshua Abrams were both part of the house band for the weekly Sunday-night jam sessions. They could also be found alongside Velvet regulars like Nicole Mitchell, David Boykin, and Fred himself. Ra was onstage just as often, with bands led by Anderson, Dee Alexander, Ari Brown, Nicole Mitchell, and Ed Wilkerson, to name just a few. (In fact Rempis’ first-time seeing Ra was in a trio with saxophonist Ari Brown and Art Ensemble of Chicago bassist Malachi Favors at the Velvet in the fall of 1997.) Rempis, the youngest of
the bunch, was an avid fan and budding musician who spent countless nights at the club in the mid-90’s, before his first concerts there with the Vandermark Five in 1998. From that time, The Velvet became a regular and crucial avenue for presenting his own work as well. And the thick sinews that the quartet has developed across the decades in between are all informed by the serious, studious, spiritual, communal, and selfless energy that Fred Anderson quietly beamed forth into the world from that sanctuary.
With Fred’s passing in June of 2010, there was a fear that the model he created might dissipate; a fear further compounded when his family decided to sell the club later that year. But that spirit proved too strong to simply waft away. Fred was someone who crouched down low when he played, and dug deep with his hefty sound. The roots he planted spread across the city to several different musician-run venues and organizations, none more so than a humble bar on a quiet stretch of Belmont Avenue on Chicago’s north side called The Hungry Brain.
It would be easy to walk by the Hungry Brain without even noticing it, since it barely even has a sign. Its name only appears in a five-inch-high cursive script painted around thigh height, at the bottom of the curtained-off front window. People who have lived in the neighborhood for years sometimes stumble in just to finally see what this small single-story box even is. But its modesty belies the crucial role the bar has taken on as the center of an artistic community whose work has global impact.
The week this album was recorded, The Hungry Brain was just a few days shy of it’s 25th anniversary of presenting jazz and improvised music every Sunday night, and 10 years into a more robust calendar of concerts organized by drummer, bandleader, and presenter Mike Reed after he bought the bar in 2015. Alongside cornetist, bandleader, and organizer Josh Berman, the two started their Sunday-night Transmission Series back in 2001, working as volunteers to create what’s now one of the longest running homes for creative music on the globe. It’s also been one of the key places for this quartet to develop its work over the 15 years of its’ existence.
This album, the fifth by this working quartet and their first in four years, is dedicated as a tribute to that legacy. While all of these musicians have been featured on major stages around the world, there’s nowhere they’d rather be playing than on a Sunday night at The Brain. Because to see Fred’s vision infuse a new center for the music, whose tenure has eclipsed even that of the Velvet itself, means that it’s not the physicality of stone or brick or wood that make a scene, but the vibrations that continue to expand outside those walls. Here’s to many more years.