Drummer/Composer/Improviser/Organizer
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Drummer/Composer/Improviser/Organizer ◊
DEBUT ALBUM “HEAT ON” OUT NOW
Cuneiform Records Rune 542
Edward Wilkerson Jr. - tenor saxophone
Fred Jackson Jr. - alto saxophone
Nick Macri - upright bass and electric bass
Lily Finnegan - drums
All tracks composed by Lily Finnegan
Recorded June 4, 2024 at Experimental Sound Studio Chicago, Illinois.
Engineered, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kate In.
“In a jazz era that bristles with young talent, releasing an album that’s sure to be shortlisted for best debut recording of the year is impressive but Chicago drummer and composer Lily Finnegan’s consistently enthralling band Heat On album introduces her powerhouse, multi-generational, inside-out quartet.
“It is a love letter to Chicago,” Finnegan says. “I’m clearly inspired by the music, energy and ethos here. Chicago is about creating good music and art for itself. It’s about dealing with the whole spectrum of sound. Even the more angular, dissonant music comes back to deep grooves. The free things can still have a dance and melody.”
Her freedom-in-swing approach is evident from the opening track Green Milk; a harmelodic blast that quickly pivots away from the angular Ornettish feel into an extended dialogue between Jackson and Wilkerson, who at 71 is at the peak of his powers. Best known as the founder and director of the cutting-edge octet 8 Bold Souls and the 25-member performance ensemble Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has been at the center of the Chicago scene for half a century. In Heat On he swoops, swaggers and croons with complete authority, adding an eloquent new chapter to his discography.
Part of what makes Heat On such a revelatory project is the frisson created by the intertwined tandems of rhythm section and horns. Finnegan and Macri, who met through shared associations with Ken Vandermark, have often found that they share similar aesthetics, “connecting over their love of punk and rock and free improvised music,” she says.
Finnegan’s affirmation of freedom and groove, dissonance, dance and lyricism runs throughout Heat On. In many ways the project embodies the intergenerational nature of the Chicago scene, and Finnegan is both proud and humbled to be joining that history and lineage.”
Photo By Leah Wendzinski
BIO
Lily Glick Finnegan is a Chicago born and based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer. She leads her own quartet, Heat On, which is releasing their debut album in 2025 on Cuneiform Records. Finnegan is also a member of Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux and the Sarah Clausen Trio. She co-leads an improvising duo project with violinist gabby fluke-mogul. In 2024, Lily and gabby released Throw It In the Sink on Sonic Transmission Records. Lily also plays with various singer-songwriters including Hannah Frances and Julia Blair. In addition, she has collaborated with artists including James Brandon Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Bill Orcutt, Macie Stewart, Fay Victor, Sylvia Bolognesi, Ed Wilkerson, Shanta Nurullah, Dave Rempis, Katie Ernst, Jason Stein, Devon Gates, Katinka Kleijn, Emma Dayhuff and Lia Kohl.
In 2021, she completed a Masters of Music from Berklee College of Music. She received a full scholarship to participate in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. At Berklee she was part of the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice where she was mentored by Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, and Linda May Han Oh. She has 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 to attending Berklee, she earned a Bachelor of Arts double major in Sociology and Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her studies fueled her interest in the confluence between power structures, history, and social movements within music.
Lily co-curates the Option Series, a showcase of contemporary approaches to improvisation and composition held at Experimental Sound Studio. She was spotlighted as a “Chicagoan of Note” by The Chicago Reader for her musical organizing work in the city. In 2025, she became a member of the independent music cooperative Catalytic Sound. She is a drum teacher, with openings for new students.