"[the] Pioneer Theater is a true trailblazer, going out on a limb every night to present
the most eclectic selection of everything available on film (and video)." - VILLAGE VOICE "Best of NYC"
East 3rd Street, between Avenues A and B (closer to A) * New York City * USA
showtimes (212) 591 0434
advance tickets: click by showtime or call (800) 595 4849 (service
charges do apply)
Ken Vandermark in person playing a solo set before each show!
Weds Sept 5 9pm
Thurs Sept 6 9:30pm
Fri Sept 7 9pm
Sat Sept 8 9pm
Sun Sept 9 9pm
Mon Sept 10 9pm
Tues Sept 11 9pm
tix available at the door
Trailer:
Jazz Hero Ken Vandermark in person playing a rare solo set before each show!
"Illuminating!" - Andrey Henkin, THE VILLAGER
"Deceptively simple . . . one of the best films of the year . . . a succession of haunting realities, none more so than a map of the shattered line between so many of our personal and professional lives." - S.T. VanAirsdale, THE REELER
"Radically fresh . . . [t]hose seeking a nutshell definition of what it means to be a committed artist need look no further." - Matt Zoller Seitz, THE NEW YORK TIMES
"RECOMMENDED. Paints a vibrant but decidely unglamorous portrait. The end result is a strange duality between work and play: Vandermark loves what he does, but because resources for the improvising musician are so limited, he can never rest." - CHICAGO READER
"MUSICIAN is a precise and insightful cinema verite study of Ken Vandermark . . . Offers an unglamorized portrait of the artist as a purposeful drudge. Well-crafted and compelling.” - VARIETY
from director Daniel Kraus (SHERIFF)
Common sense says you can't make a living in America playing atonal improvisational jazz. But Ken Vandermark does it anyway.
Among musicians, Vandermark's work ethic is almost mythic: the Chicago reed player has made over 100 records with over 40 ensembles, releases about one album per month, spends over eight months per year on the road, and lives every other waking moment composing, arranging, performing - and taking his dog Bill to canine counseling. Though Vandermark was the recipient of a 1999 MacArthur Genius grant, he still spends most of his life in smoky clubs and low-budget recording studios, hoping people will plunk down hard-earned cash to hear his wholly non-commercial music.
Following the artful cinema verité style of the internationally acclaimed SHERIFF, MUSICIAN forgoes all interviews and voice-overs. It is a fly-on-the-wall time capsule that expertly captures every subtle sound and texture of this most American of art forms.
MUSICIAN is #2 in the WORK SERIES, a series of independent documentaries that seek to create an ongoing document of the American worker. (#1 was SHERIFF, which showed at the Pioneer in 2005.) Taking inspiration from Studs Terkel and Frederick Wiseman, the WORK films are entertaining and enlightening, empowering and amusing, spectacular and mundane. Using a cinéma vérité aesthetic, independent filmmaker Daniel Kraus captures the sights, sounds, and textures of different American jobs, without the accompaniment of interviews, musical score, or even a story. Each chapter reveals the surprising, engaging, even redemptive routines of hard-working men and women across all 50 States.
