Photo by Kelly Davidson
Edition Redux “Better a Rook Than A Pawn” is out now!!!!
“Audiographic Records presents the first album by Ken Vandermark’s newest ensemble, Edition Redux, which adds to the MacArthur Prize winner's internationally and critically acclaimed series of bands he has composed for: The Vandermark 5, FME, The Territory Band, The Resonance Ensemble, Entr'acte, Made To Break, and Marker. In addition to Vandermark, who plays saxophones and clarinet with the group, this quartet is composed of Erez Dessel (keyboards), Lily Finnegan (drums), and Beth McDonald (tuba/electronics), who represent the next wave of Chicago’s creative music scene.
Called Better A Rook Than A Pawn, the recording includes the wide range of Vandermark's interests and influences: incorporating the experimental jazz of the AACM; the different schools of improvised music developed in England, Netherlands, and Germany; post-punk, Tropicalia, dub, and funk. Edition Redux presented its music for the first time during a U.S. tour in April of 2023, then recorded this material at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago immediately following that series of concerts. After a highly successful tour in Europe during October of the same year, the group will be back on the road in the States during February of 2024 and in Europe in November.”
Lily Glick Finnegan is a Chicago born and based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer. This year she was featured in the Chicago Reader as a “Chicagoan of Note”. She is a member of Edition Redux, a new ensemble featuring Ken Vandermark, Erez Dessel, and Beth McDonald. They have upcoming plans to tour Europe in 2023, and the United States and South America in 2024. In addition, she leads her own group and is part of Thwartet and the Sarah Clausen trio. She has collaborated with artists including gabby fluke-mogul, Ken Vandermark, Shanta Nurullah, Macie Stewart, Dave Rempis, Ben Lamar Gay, Devon Gates, Ed Wilkerson, Lia Kohl, Katinka Kleijn, Fred Jackson, Jason Stein, Christof Kurzmann, and Katie Ernst.
In 2021 she completed a Masters of Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She received a full scholarship to participate in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, a 20 person international cadre of musicians led by Danilo Perez. At Berklee she was part of the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Here she was mentored by Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, and Linda May Han Oh. She’s worked on projects with Carrington including “Music for Abolition” as part of the Visualizing Abolition Exhibit at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her thesis project was entitled “Music and Abolition: Creating a World Without Policing- Music’s Role in Imagination, Experimentation, and Collectivity”. Prior, she earned a Bachelor of Arts double major from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology and music.This fueled her interest in studying the confluence between power structures, history, and social movements with music.
She is one of the curators of the Option Series, a showcase of contemporary approaches to improvisation and composition held at Experimental Sound Studio. Lily works for the independent music cooperative Catalytic Sound as the record store manager and festival organizer. In 2023 she was nominated as one of the Next Jazz Legacy semi finalists.
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“Lily Glick Finnegan, drummer and Option Series curator” - Philip Montoro, Chicago Reader
“Catalytic Sound Festival Brings New Combinations to Elastic Arts”- Michael Jackson, Downbeat Magazine
“Breaking Down Boundaries with Lily Finnegan” - Jerry Greenberg, Arts + Literature Lab