Black Diamond

3111 N. Western Avenue,CHICAGO IL 60618

14 May, 2021

Description

Black Diamond 18+ 8:00pm // in person and livestream This show will be open for a distanced, in-person audience. Please buy a ticket ahead of time to come in person. You can buy a DUO ticket, which admits 2 people to sit together at a table on the floor, or you can buy a SOLO ticket, which admits 1 person to sit distanced from others on the elevated seats. The show will also be livestreamed. If you choose to watch the livestream, please support the artists by purchasing a donation-based ticket. You can watch the livestream here: https://youtu.be/9SA6BI4tRG0 August 2017 marked the release of Black Diamond's debut recording , "Mandala," on Shifting Paradigm Records. Featuring bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Neil Hemphill, the album contains nine original works by Black and Diamond. The title is inspired by the Vajrayana Buddhist practice of sand painting. The intent of a mandala is to form a representation of the enlightened mind through intricate patterning of layered grains of colored sand. The music on "Mandala" represents our grains laid; our mandala composed. "Mandala" was listed as an editor's pick in Downbeat magazine in August 2017.  Black Diamond's second album, “Chant” (Shifting Paradigm), was recorded live at The Whistler in Chicago and released in March 2019 on Shifting Paradigm Records.  This recording built on the momentum of "Mandala" and further crystalized the band's sound.  The nature of the live recording leads to a heightened level of energy and collective improvisation.  In praise of "Chant," the Chicago Reader describes Black Diamond's ability "...to affirm the importance of discovering the commonalities between mediums that are bound by creativity and growth." The most recent from Black Diamond, "A Held Space" (Woolgathering Records) features Black and Diamond in a series of improvisational duets whose raw material was edited and produced to create a collage that represents their longstanding chemistry. Jazz Journal UK wrote that "Black and Diamond’s augmenting of their in-the-moment work stops short of straightforward overdubbing and has the effect of deepening their spontaneity and the acute degree to which they are a meeting of musical minds." Artie Black - saxophone Hunter Diamond -saxophone Matt Ulery - bass Neil Hemphill - drums www.blackdiamondchicago.com