Dimensional Stardust

Chicago cornetist and maverick multi-instrumentalist Rob Mazurek has led the Exploding Star Orchestra through a number of manifestations since its 2007 debut, and *Dimensional Stardust* finds the shape-shifting 13-piece electro-acoustic group still in peak creative form on a set of new Mazurek pieces. It features the leader on piccolo trumpet and “electronic renderings,” with such acclaimed International Anthem labelmates as guitarist Jeff Parker, trumpeter Jaimie Branch, and spoken-word vocalist Damon Locks (whose original texts and electronics foster a mysterious dreamlike mood). Nicole Mitchell’s airy but animated flute is a central melodic presence, as is the vibraphone of Joel Ross, the cello of Tomeka Reid, and the acoustic and electric piano of Angelica Sanchez. It’s a meeting of formidable musical minds, with Tortoise’s John Herndon adding drum machines to the dense double-drummer mix of Chad Taylor and Mikel Patrick Avery. Mazurek has a way of writing not just one melody but maybe five, all intersecting and hitting over odd accents and abstract beats amid a rich blend of strings, percussion, horn, synth, vocal recitation, and other inscrutable elements.

The Chicago jazz composer stitches together an album of big, unanswerable questions and gorgeously orchestrated music from a host of local heroes.

Dimensional Stardust from Rob Mazurek's evolutionary Exploding Star Orchestra is easily his most complex, ambitious, and detailed offering in a nearly three-decade career.