New Music Series: Johannes Wallmann Trio at Arts + Literature Laboratory

Pianist and composer Johannes Wallmann, chair of UW-Madison’s jazz program, continued to build on his already-strong discography earlier this year with the release of Precarious Towers on the Shifting Paradigm label. Wallmann has been restlessly exploring different configurations over the years, and this time he pulls together a quintet that helps him tie the roots of jazz to a range of playful and dissonant tendencies. At this show, part of a free Sunday series organized by saxophonist Anders Svanoe, Wallmann will be joined by percussionist Mitch Shiner and trumpeter Russ Johnson. Shiner (who himself chairs a jazz program, at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee) plays vibraphone on Precarious Towers, and makes a particularly memorable contribution lending color and conflicted texture to the slinky, blues-y “Never Pet A Burning Dog.” Johnson has also recorded with Wallmann before, including on the 2015 album The Town Musicians, and he’s an adventurous composer/bandleader in his own right, as you can hear on standout albums like 2014’s Meeting Point and 2018’s Headlands.

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—Scott Gordon