With Mother Harp, Matt Ulery sheds lavish chamber sounds for an active rock ethos

The Chicago bassist and composer returns to North Street Cabaret with a new jazz-rock-leaning quintet on May 17.

“Lush” is the first descriptor that springs to mind when listening to the compositions of Chicago-based bassist and composer Matt Ulery, whose various chamber ensembles through the past decade have featured up to 11 members. He writes sweeping, cinematic music that feels like it’s suspended in time, or has enough awestruck emotional pull to suspend time itself with its lustrous polyphony.

Ulery’s new quintet, Mother Harp, though, feels very much of the times and trends. Stripping things down, by his standards, to a quintet of friends and familiar faces—including Wisconsin trumpeter Russ Johnson and Chicago-based woodwindist Artie Black, tenor saxophonist and electric guitarist Dustin Laurenzi, drummer Quin Kirchner, and Ulery himself picking up an electric bass instead of his usual acoustic double bass—the players thrive in an expanded rock band configuration with a penchant for modes of free jazz. Their instrumental makeup evokes the recent international jazz-rock resurgence, spurred by young acts like the thriving locals Mr. Chair (now a trio), Norwegian guitarist Hedvig Mollestad, Japanese phenom Betcover!!, and even Black Midi.

Channeling their energy, Ulery’s own conception of the project stemmed from a similarly youthful and joyfully communal place of first performing, and, not to mention, sharing music. “My first band, and the first music I would write as a young teen, was a ska-punk band with a three-horn section. This was my folk music,” he writes to Tone Madison via email. “Beyond that, free improvisation has always been a crucial way for me to find joy as a musician.”

Ahead of a live recording session at Chicago’s eminent Hungry Brain this summer, Ulery’s Mother Harp visits North Street Cabaret for a performance on Friday, May 17, at 8 p.m.

“Wiper,” one of Mother Harp’s lengthiest pieces at 10-plus minutes, features Ulery leading with melodically simple but rhythmically complex deep-toned bass groove from the get-go. Johnson’s trumpet and Black and Laurenzi’s fierce saxophone figures weave through it with proggy finesse. Most intriguing, though, is this piece’s wild, inspiriting structure, which allows for Johnson’s early improvised solo (preempting the 90-second mark) before the nimbleness of Kirchner’s lone beat carries Black and Laurenzi’s tenors for a consecutive solo. “Wiper” then winds back for a final leg that gradually builds in its intensity. The collective’s locked-in, syncopated pulse and dynamics recall the opening minutes of Kayo Dot’s odyssey “Abyss Hinge: The Shrinking Armature.”

“NightShade” is a shade subtler by comparison, and more in keeping with Ulery’s methodology and signature euphonious sound that allows his indisputably memorable melodies to mingle for long stretches. Elsewhere, “Five Pocket” splits the difference between the two aforementioned compositions, but veers off on its own, for a brighter and more upbeat tune partly inspired by klezmer. Black and Laurenzi’s harmonizing here feels especially breezy, buoyant, and (yes) joyful, as Ulery once again facilitates arrangements for his players that just make everyone sound in sync. Maybe that will become the standard term for the whole of Ulery’s indefatigable output from now on.

_{Matt Ulery’s Mother Harp performing “Wiper” live at The Green Mill in Chicago on March 8, 2024:}