At age 9. Jason Adasiewicz started as a drummer and had always been a very physical player. The act of hitting the drums, of using his body to produce volume and tone from the instrument, always appealed to him. He was a prolific player, always practicing and playing throughout high school and the three years he spent at DePaul University.
Although he started playing the vibraphone in high school, it wasn’t until years later that it became his main instrument. The early 2000s rock scene in Chicago kept him busy by touring with Pinetop Seven, Edith Frost, Central Falls, Manishevitz, Simon Joyner and Calexico. While this experience provided creative support, his day job at the Jazz Record Mart started feeding him the jazz education that DePaul hadn’t provided. It took another decade of experimentation and creative reckoning before he would become: “Ultra-musical, a fine composer with a deep knowledge of the creative music lineage, poised to be the one to restore the vibraphone to its place of honor at the new jazz table.” (John Corbett, DownBeat).
At this time, Adasiewicz started composing relentlessly. The daily exposure to such a rich history of jazz music, as well as collaborative musings with friends, laid the groundwork for his transition from the drums to the vibraphone. The shift came in 2002 when Adasiewicz moved from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, to follow love, and decided to focus his energy on the vibraphone full time. All that physicality went from the drums to the vibraphone. While working on a vegetable farm as a day job, he formed the quintet Rolldown with close friends Josh Berman, Aram Shelton, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly.
In 2004, Adasiewicz moved back to Chicago and was asked to join Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra. This large group fit well with his intense style of playing, and through tours in the United States and United Kingdom he was introduced to life-long contacts. His own debut as a leader came in 2008 with the release of the self-titled “Rolldown,” followed by “Varmint” the year after.
However, it wasn’t until the trio Sun Rooms, with Mike Reed and Nate McBride, that critical acclaim started coming Adasiewicz’s way, earning him a spot in the New York Times’ Top 10 Pop and Jazz Records of 2010 for his record “Sun Rooms.” “On this album, the easy-swinging ’Life’ and the ballad ’Rose Garden’ are some of the better songs that I’ve heard recently written by jazz musicians. And he knows their dimensions. Nobody here grandstands, fusses over details or wastes time. Solos take their place in an arrangement and then disappear. There’s no problem of scale or mismatch of effect to material. It’s a modest and affecting band, in control of its mood.” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times).
Sun Rooms has released three records to date and continues to be Adasiewicz’s most personal statement. The list of Chicago projects Adasiewicz has been an integral member is extensive, including ones with Nicole Mitchell, Joshua Abrams, Mike Reed, Hamid Drake, James Falzone and Ken Vandermark. Europe has become a second home and collaborations with European musicians have become more frequent, including a partnership with German free-jazz titan Peter Brötzmann.
Their duo performance at the 2011 Vision Festival was honored in the New York Times as one of the Top 10 concerts of the year. “Sensitivity isn’t what you ever expect from saxophone firebrand Peter Brötzmann. But that’s what came of this freely improvised duet with Mr. Adasiewicz, a deft, dynamic young vibraphonist” (Nate Chinen, New York Times)
Adasiewicz has been hailed as “one of the great vibraphonists of our time” (Kevin Whitehead, NPR) and his “recordings do not come close to capturing his extraordinary tintinnabulation” (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune).
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
