Dot Dot Dot
The original DOT DOT DOT grew out of the largely improvisatory Da Plain Ensemble in the early 80's. Debuting on 23 July, 1982, the band at that time consisted of Jef Bek (drums), Thymme Jones (keyboards/trumpet), Ross Feller (saxes), Brian Imig (guitar/keyboards) and Terry Killips (bass). Imig and Killips departed soon after and were replaced by Chris Block (bass) completing what was to become the first classic line-up. Combining influences from the worlds of rock, jazz and the avant garde, the predominantly instrumental quartet performed throughout Chicagoland in the mid-80's making multiple appearances at the prestigious New Music Chicago Festival. Second City legend Del Close once described Dot Dot Dot as a "sonic lobotomy". After some initial studio recordings, the band entered its final phase as Ross left to pursue an academic career. Ross was replaced by Scot Ashley (guitars) and the second classic quartet was born, recording two singles before eventually disbanding in 1986.
Tonight's performance reunites the original quartet for the first time in nearly three decades. This will be their only reunion - so your excuses are limited...
Post Dot…
Thymme JONES is a multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter who has been a staple of Chicago's vibrant underground music scene for three decades. He is best known for being the founding member of the seminal art-rock band,CHEER-ACCIDENT, who insist on being as thought-provoking and genre-defying as they were at their inception in the early '80s. He is equally at home in both experimental and pop contexts, and has performed live and/or recorded with Tony Conrad, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Will Oldham, Bobby Conn, Jim O' Rourke, U.S. Maple, Smog, and many others. He has been a member of Brise-Glace, Illusion Of Safety, You Fantastic!, Yona-Kit, and has recently been spotted playing a key role in Dead Rider (Todd Rittmann's brilliant vehicle for warped rock and R&B eccentricity). When Thymme performs solo, he calls upon his extensive catalog of introspective (and often melancholy) piano/voice songs, which recalls the world of Robert Wyatt, Burt Bacharach, and Todd Rundgren. http://www.cheer-accident.com
Composer, theorist, saxophonist, and educator Ross FELLER currently resides in Ohio. Over the past twenty years he has developed a musical vocabulary that features raw, ecstatic layers of material that seethe with refined, virtuosic gestures, the movements for which are often explicitly choreographed. John von Rhein (Chicago Tribune) characterized Feller’s work as “an elaborate show.” Mary Lee Roberts, former Technical Director of Princeton University’s electronic music studios found Feller’s work to exhibit “a finely defined and personal musical style.” Stanford University composer Brian Ferneyhough has said that, "it is not the tired inherited rhetoric of the Postmodern that fuels (Feller's) music, but a lively and irreverent sense of the positive power of structural plurality - a constantly re-enunciated and celebrated 'rigorous informality.'" http://www.rossfeller.com
Following the disintegration of Dot Dot Dot in 1986, Chris BLOCK continued to work with Thymme and guitarist Jeff Libersher. In 1997 the trio initiated what was to become the second incarnation of Cheer-Accident. After three landmark albums, he departed in 1992 and has remained active in and around the Chicago music scene - most notably with Illusion Of Safety, Star Period Star, The Libertines (not the one you've heard of), Asa Nisi, Fifteen Minutes and Jef Bek. More recently, he had released two solo albums in collaboration with Thymme under the name POX. He has also recorded an album of ambient music in benefit of Valley Of The Kings Sanctuary & Retreat, a big cat rescue with which he has been actively involved since 1997. In addition to music, Chris is also an avid photographer and graphic artist and has had multiple showings at the Around The Coyote festival in Chicago. http://www.djedfre.com
Jef BEK was the resident Musical Director/Composer/ for John Cusack’s New Crime Productions from 1989 to 1994. Shows included FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS and METHUSALEM (Joseph Jefferson Award winner for Musical Direction). Bek also performed original music for the American premiere of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE at The Steppenwolf Theatre. Bek moved to Los Angeles in 1995 and has won 17 awards composing and performing music for theatrical productions. Most recently Bek wrote the music/lyrics and book for EVEL KNIEVEL THE ROCK OPERA and taught Interactive Sound Design at the University of Southern California.
http://www.jefbek.com/