Guitarist, improviser and organizer Steve Marquette has become an integral part of Chicago’s storied and vibrant improvised music community this past decade. He has toured Europe and the United States with several of his bands and was featured in the Oorstof concert series with The Few in 2017. Two years later, he was part of a Visitations residency of Ken Vandermark’s Marker, where the ensemble was joined by Farida Amadou, Stan Maris, Hanne De Backer and Audrey Lauro for a collaborative project. He founded the Instigation Festival that brings together performers from Chicago and New Orleans for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration in each city once every two years. Together with Alison Chesley, he forms the duo Liminal Rites that will perform at Summer Bummer on Friday and will record a first album this fall.

Can you tell me something about your musical background?

I went to college for “jazz studies” at a university with a rather conservative (with the exception of my guitar professor) music program, but it was in Chicago proper. Almost by accident I got a job working at the Jazz Record Mart (legendary record store founded by Bob Koester of Delmark records, JC). They meant to hire someone else, lost their application and mine was the next one on the pile. At that time, jaimie branch, Keefe Jackson and Josh Berman were all working there and, as I grew more disillusioned with the confines of what music school was, they introduced me to free jazz and improvised music. My first gateway was through saxophone players – I remember talking with Keefe and telling him how I loved Mars Williams’ Liquid Soul and he told me to check out the NRG Ensemble’s record Finnish Swiss Tour and that completely blew my mind – the sheer force of the band, its’ total aliveness, Mars and Hal sparring, buoyed by a visceral joy in music making. Up until college I had also played baritone sax – hearing Ken Vandermark’s Brult and The Thing’s Action Jazz were revelations. Coltrane’s Olatunji Concert and of course Machine Gun – I think as much as the quality of the recording as the playing and ideas – were when I began to think of how to translate those sounds I was hearing on the saxophone to the guitar. Then, in a moment where I can say life was one way and then completely different after, I saw a YouTube video called Destination Out by Last Exit and the Sonny Sharrock solo from 3:48 – 5:52 kicked open every door and not only unified all these disparate ideas in my head but pointed a way forward as a guitar player in this music that unapologetically embraces the instrument, its history, cultural context and potential.

I was incredibly fortunate to come onto the scene in 2008 at a time when the Umbrella Music Group (Josh Berman, Mitch Cocanig, Mike Reed, Dave Rempis, Ken Vandermark) was programming concerts three nights a week and organizing their festival. I saw Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake duo the week of Fred’s 80th birthday and that was another turning point – if Sonny Sharrock had pointed the way sonically, that concert – and the DIY, community-building ethos embodied by Fred and the rest of the Umbrella organizers – was the moment where I said “this is what I want to do”. In addition to the Umbrella shows, I also went and saw Extraordinary Popular Delusions (a quartet with Mars, Jim Baker, Steve Hunt and Brian Sandstrom) almost every week for two years. Those concerts were not only masterclasses in improvisation, but lessons in devotion: even when I would be the only person in the audience, the focus, passion and creativity that they brought to each gig never wavered.

Did you grow up in Chicago or when did you move there?

I grew up outside of the city but have been living there since I started college in 2006. Through working at the Jazz Record Mart, volunteering at Umbrella Fest and being a very excitable young lad in general, I went head first into the scene and started taking lessons with Ken Vandermark, Mars Williams and Jeff Parker (Ken and Mars for composition, Jeff for guitar). Jeb Bishop played in my very first band where I started writing for improvisers – the music was very indebted to the Vandermark 5 and NRG Ensemble in its organizational systems and instrumentation. In 2015 I began working with Macie Stewart (violin and voice) and Charlie Kirchen (bass) in our trio the Few which felt like a band with a distinct identity and we all had time to devote to the project.

Unless I’m mistaken, the first time you were invited by Sound in Motion was with The Few in 2017. The organization always had a strong connection to the Chicago scene, working together with Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis, Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams since the very beginning. Did some of these people inform you about this crazy promotor from Antwerp?

When we decided to do our first tour in Europe in 2017, all of those folks you mentioned – and Mike Reed – said to reach out to Koen and Christel. Their hospitality, openness and care remains a gold standard for organizers. Adding our names to the guest book felt like a real moment of “arrival”.

On Friday you will perform with cellist Alison Chesley as Liminal Rites. I could only find one track of the duo online, so I’m wondering what you can tell us more about the music. And also, how did you connect? It doesn’t seem like an obvious match from my limited perspective. I am somewhat familiar with Alison’s solo work as Helen Money and that is pretty dark and industrial at some times. While I associate you with the Chicago jazz and improvisation scene, and the concerts I saw you play with Marker and The Few.

A beautiful aspect of the Chicago-scene writ large is that almost all of the communities – regardless of genre – share a DIY ethos and an openness to collaboration. Alison and I were mutual fans of each other’s work and decided to do a duo concert on new year’s eve at the May Chapel in Rosehill cemetery. We’ve maintained that tradition since. The development of the duo into a full-fledged band occurred after quarantine when we both had time to rehearse extensively. We would spend those sessions improvising and then identifying the things we enjoyed to establish a “book of sounds” rather than “tunes”. I think a common thread that runs through our work outside of the duo is an interest in sonic worlds that have a depth of field and a compositional arc – whether it’s improvised or notated. The duo gives us an opportunity to explore those things in a new context.

You will also join Mats Gustafsson and Fire! Orchestra to close the festival with a bang. Do you know what you will be playing yet or how you will tackle this collaboration?

As of press time that’s unknown to me, but I can’t wait to see how Mats is going to organize this version of the orchestra!

A large ensemble in this “business” is not an easy thing to manage and almost impossible to take on tour. Do have some secret ambitions of your own for a big(ger) ensemble?

I’m a firm believer in Daniel Burnham – the architect of the Chicago Plan’s – mantra, “make no little plans” – most iterations of the Instigation Festival have been structured around the festival artists performing in small groups culminating in a large ensemble either improvising or performing a newly commissioned piece. One of those pieces – Mars Williams’ Devil’s Whistle – ultimately grew to a site-specific, twenty-three performer suite. While it’s been incredible to be part of those ensembles – and I have a mind for the logistics needed to make those concerts happen – my ambitions run into the brick wall of my own (self-imposed?) limitations (beyond the compositional-act of assembling the performers).

You founded and still lead the Instigation Festival, bringing together musicians from New Orleans and Chicago for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration. What led you to initiate this?

I met New Orleans based trombonist and concert organizer Jeff Albert in 2010 and he invited me to play on his weekly series in 2011. Jeff put together a band and I brought the book of material that I’d been working on with my Chicago quintet. While the Chicago version of the band played the music in the way that I was hearing it, the New Orleans folks brought a lot of unexpected and surprising things to the pieces and improvising that felt very new and electric. That same trip, I met Aurora Nealand whose singular mixing of improvised music, performance art, traditional jazz and song forms was a revelation along with other musicians that have since become frequent collaborators and dear friends.

Is there a scene of improvised music or similar in New Orleans?

The “sister city” relationship between Chicago and New Orleans is very real and I could elaborate on the historic and cultural contexts of that for a very long time (ask me at Zeezicht and I’ll gladly do so haha), but succinctly, the impetus for the festival came from there being a community of artists in both cities working in similar ways that, I felt, if they could work together new and exciting things would come from it – “improvised music” as a way of doing things rather than a “genre”. Over the nearly ten years of doing two festivals a year (one in each city) there’s been lots of changes in both cities’ scenes – though New Orleans has many unique economic, infrastructure, racial and class issues that keep things in a much greater state of flux than Chicago. But the one constant has been vibrant communities of people committed to creative music.

Has the organizing, curating or other aspects of your work there changed your perspective as a performing and touring musician?

The festival (though any festival, touring route, artistic community, etc.) is a constant reminder of the strength and fragility of the ecosystems that make creative music possible since they’re dependent entirely on interpersonal relationships – our collective belief in the ideas and each other. Despite the material problems always shifting under our feet, we find ways to make beautiful, improbable and defiant things happen which feels particularly necessary now.

What are you reading and listening to these days?

I’m a proud member of the (informal) Guy Peters Book Club haha – I’m always finding out about new authors from his instagram stories. Most recently, I discovered Paul Auster thanks to Guy and have really been enjoying his books – the first part of The Invention of Solitude and Baumgartner specifically. Music wise I really love Chris Corsano’s new solo record on Drag City and am grateful to be alive at a time when Bill Orcutt is so prolific. To All Trains may be the best Shellac record, though tragically the last. While social media is a nightmarish hellscape, we at least have daily access to Hanif Abdurraqib’s deeply human writings on music, politics, grief, creativity and sports.

What’s on your agenda the following weeks and months?

Alison and I will be recording the first Liminal Rites record in the fall at Electrical Audio (Steve Albini’s studio). I have more rehearsals and sessions than concerts in the fall, developing projects etc. though I plan to do more touring in the states and abroad in 2025 along with working on new solo music. The Instigation programming for 2025 is also pretty well set so it’s about time to jump into the logistics for those.