Dave Rempis (born March 24, 1975) is an American

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...

saxophonist. He plays alto, tenor and baritone saxophone.

Life and career

Dave was born in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

in 1975. He began his musical studies at the age of 8. In 1993, Rempis began a degree in classical saxophone at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

with

Frederick Hemke Fred Hemke, DMA ''(né'' Frederick Leroy Hemke Jr.; July 11, 1935 – April 17, 2019) was an American virtuoso classical saxophonist and influential professor of saxophone at Northwestern University. Hemke helped raise the popularity of classi ...

. As part of his studies in anthropology, he spent a year at the International Centre for African Music and Dance at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

Legon Legon , a suburb of the Ghanaian city Accra, is situated about north-east of the city center in the Accra Metropolis District, a district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. Ghanaia ...

, studying African music and ethnomusicology. After graduating from Northwestern in 1997, Rempis decided to focus on performing, and in March 1998 was asked to replace saxophonist

Mars Williams Mars Williams (born May 29, 1955) is an American jazz and rock saxophonist. Exposed to big band and dixieland jazz by his trumpet-playing father, Williams played classical clarinet for ten years, then migrated to saxophone in his last year of hig ...

in the Chicago jazz band The Vandermark Five, led by saxophonist

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered composi ...

. During his tenure with The Vandermark Five, Rempis also began to develop many Chicago-based groups and cooperative units as Triage, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister and The Rempis/Daisy Duo. He recorded for labels such as

Okka Disk Okka Disk is an independent American jazz record company and label founded in Chicago by Bruno Johnson in 1994. Okka began as a rock music label, but Johnson soon changed direction to record free jazz.

, 482 Music,

Clean Feed Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music A ...

, Not Two, and Aerophonic, an artist-run label that Rempis founded in the winter of 2013. His collaborations include a wide variety of creative improvised music legends, ranging from

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

and

John Tchicai John Martin Tchicai ( ; 28 April 1936 – 8 October 2012) was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer. Biography Tchicai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father. The family moved to Aarhus, where he st ...

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is ...

and

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...

.Travellin’ Light: Dave Rempis
at Point of Departure Rempis also works as a presenter in the Chicago area. He has served as a curator for the Elastic Arts Foundation’s weekly "Improvised Music" concert series, helped establish the Umbrella Music collective and its annual music festival, worked as lead organizer of the Downtown Sound Gallery concert series at Gallery 37, and was also a key organizer of the yearly

Pitchfork Music Festival The Pitchfork Music Festival is an annual summer music festival organized by ''Pitchfork Media'' and held in Union Park in Chicago, Illinois. Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris at Grande halle de la Villette. The fe ...

Discography

As leader/co-leader

As sideman

References

External links

Official siteInterview : Dave Rempis
at ''Burning Ambulance''
Dave Rempis: Communication, Improvisation And No Screwing Around
at

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

A Chat with Dave Rempis: Jazz, Aerophones & Telepathic Empathy
at

Gapers Block Gapers Block (Gapers Block Media, LLC) was a Chicago-centric web publication focused on covering Chicago culture under the tag line: "''Slow down and check out Chicago''". The site, gapersblock.com, lists local events, aggregates other Chicago blog ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rempis, Dave 1975 births Living people Free jazz saxophonists People from Wellesley, Massachusetts Musicians from Massachusetts Northwestern University alumni 21st-century saxophonists Okka Disk artists