Paul Giallorenzo/Photo: Michael Jackson
From the AACM to Hal Russell, Ken Vandermark and the NRG Ensemble, Chicago has always had a strong experimental jazz tradition. Still thriving in small, off-the-beaten-path clubs like The Empty Bottle, The Hideout, Constellation and The Hungry Brain, Paul Giallorenzo has been a part of this movement as a performer, recording artist and co-founder and music programmer at Logan Square’s Elastic Arts. Surrounded by the Elastic’s black stage, faux-Oriental rugs and artwork on the gallery walls, Giallorenzo talks about his quarter century of involvement in Chicago jazz and his latest Delmark recording, “Play.”
“Like most musicians my age, I started off listening to and playing rock, traditional stuff like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers,” says Giallorenzo, who was born in the Bronx, New York City, but raised on Long Island. “Then in high school I got into jazz. First Miles Davis, after my high-school band teacher told me about him, then Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, especially his years with The Headhunters.”
Giallorenzo moved to Chicago in 1995 to attend Northwestern University, where he earned a degree in comparative literary studies in 1999. Largely self-taught in music, he played in what he described as a hybrid between hip-hop, funk and free jazz. In 2001, he helped form a band called Hearts and Minds that delved further into jazz. It was also at about this time that the seeds for the Elastic Arts were first planted.
“At the end of college we formed a collective to share a rehearsal space and rented a loft in Pilsen,” Giallorenzo says. “Then we started to host parties and informal performances, until one night we had a really big party and got kicked out. So we moved to 3033, then a gallery space at 2830 North Milwaukee,” Giallorenzo says. “It was a big gallery, so we started hosting everything from experimental jazz jams on Thursday nights to poetry readings, multimedia, dance, we even had a couple of puppet shows.”
Taking the lead from artists like Vandermark, Giallorenzo delved into his music through a series of projects involving duos, trios and larger ensembles, including forming the band GitGo in 2004. His creative nature also took him back and forth between various mediums, from acoustic piano to electric piano, organ and synthesizer, and independent labels like Vimeo and Astral Spirits. In 2014, GitGo released “Force Majeure” for Delmark Records, which received critical acclaim in the indie jazz world. One of its main components was the driving sax of Mars Williams, whose death in late 2023 is still being felt in the music community.
“Mars was in my band from 2012 to 2015,” Giallorenzo says of the saxophonist, whose work ranged from the rock of The Psychedelic Furs, The Waitresses, Jerry Garcia, The Killers and Naked Raygun to the experimental jazz of the NRG Ensemble and Liquid Soul. “I was younger and looked up to him as a veteran of the scene, great musician and good friend who, after he split up with his wife, ended up living in my basement for two years… I really miss that guy.”
Giallorenzo’s most recent project is the album “Play.” Recorded at Delmark Studios with a trio including Joshua Abrams on double bass and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Giallorenzo combines pentatonic chords, modals, bop lines; and flowing piano fills with offbeat time signatures that critic Neil Tesser describes as “connecting the impressionism of Debussy with the expressionism of Pharaoh Sanders.” In between, there are also some catchy riffs and quiet piano passages that could be set in late-night lounges.
“I love improvisation, but I also like to create a certain structure so that the music creates a mood and tells a story,” Giallorenzo says. “That way you can mix the two, which is what I like to do.”
The Paul Giallorenzo Trio will be performing at The Hungry Brain, 2319 West Belmont, on June 16. Doors at 7pm, show at 9pm. Tickets are $15 here.
