Five Nights in the Midwest documents seven sets of the American, free improvising trio of Chicagoan bass clarinetist Jason Stein (of Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society and Hearts & Minds Trio), and drummer-percussionist Adam Shead, and St. Louis-based double bass master Damon Smith, during five nights of its MidWest tour, at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, at State Street Pub in Indianapolis, at Spot Tavern in Lafayette, at Dissonant Works in St. Louis, and at Reverberation Records in Bloomington, in December 2025, packed into three discs. The seven intense and stormy sets are presented exactly as they performed, without edits or cuts, allowing listeners to enjoy the full experience of a travelogue of a hard-working and resourceful trio as it evolves and enriches its dynamics on a busy tour.
Five Nights in the Midwest is the fifth album of this trio, following its last album with legendary pianist Marilyn Crispell (Live at the Hungry Brain, Trost, 2025). Obviously, it focused on the trio’s egalitarian, ever-inventive, and deep listening interplay, enjoying the format of long-form collective improvisations to expand its free jazz-tinged sonic palette into a transformative, deeply immersive experience. The three improvisers are masters of the art of the moment, equipped with an array of extended breathing, bowing, and percussive techniques. Stein’s urgent bass clarinet playing explored the instrument’s full expressive, raw physical as well as timbral possibilities, grounded in the immediacy of breath. The powerful, propulsive rhythm section of Smith and Shead offered an elastic sensibility to time, with wise, precise shifts in texture and density that never settled on predictable patterns. Each set is a masterful demonstration of this trio’s organic, telepathic, and masterful dynamics and commanding wisdom, but it reaches its greatest, most ecstatic climax on the last set of this tour at Reverberation Records in Bloomington.
Forge documents the first-ever, free improvising meeting of Stein with Missouri-based guitarist and electronics player Seth Andrew Davis (a frequent collaborator of Damon Smith and co-founder of Mother Brain label, who mixed and mastered the album), and drummer-percussionist Kevin Cheli (who plays in a duo with Davis, and did the cover artwork), captured at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago in October 2022. This trio experiments with different dynamics, but often gravitates into intense and confrontational, pushing for the extreme territories, highlighting the immediate camaraderie of Davis and Cheli, and forcing Stein to use the upper register of the bass clarinet to find his place in the dense, manic sonic collisions. But when Stein takes Davis and Cheli out of their energetic comfort zone on pieces like «Brace» and «Quilt», the trio finds more contemplative, deeper, and exploratory courses on pieces like «Brace».
Stein joins Chicagoan pianist Josh Harlow and Detroit-based percussionist Jonathan Barahal’s Teiku quartet, which explores their respective families’ unique Jewish Passover melodies, coming from rare manuscripts, voice recordings, and memories of late-night ritualistic chants, as conduits for new forms of spontaneous improvisations. Teiku (תיקו ) refers to an unresolved question or a «tie» in Talmudic law. Stein did not play on the quartet’s debut album, self-titled album (577, 2025), which featured double bass player Jaribu Shahid (of Sun Ra Arkestra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago) and reed player Peter Formanek. The follow-up album, Klang, with Shahid and Stein, was recorded at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor in July 2025.
Harlow and Barahal declare that they «reject all forms of state violence that have become associated with that heritage by power-crazed genocidal nationalists. To that end, we dedicate this set of music to the Palestinian people and all suffering people». Teiku explores three Ashkenazi traditional Passover melodies and chants, «Ki Le Noeh» (כִּי לוֹ נָאֵֶה, Because it is proper for Him ), in four different versions, «Khasul Seydur Peysakh» (חֲסַל סִדּוּר פֶּסַח, The Passover seder has been completed), and «Odir Bimlikhe» (from קַדֵּשׁ וּרְחַץ, Kadesh Urchatz, Sanctification of the Seder). These ancient melodies are deconstructed, reframed, and negotiated through timbral explorations, electronic processes, funky odd meter patterns, and immediate, spontaneous improvisations, often letting Stein’s bass clarinet take on the cantorial role of leading this kind of exploratory, transformative ceremony, while Teiku keeping their essence of gathering, collective power, and remembrance.
Eyal Hareuveni
Jason Stein (bass clarinet, percussion), Damon Smith (double bass), Adam Shead (drums, percussion), Seth Andrew Davis (electric guitar, electronics), Kevin Cheli (drums, percussion), Josh Harlow (piano, synthesizer, Fender Rhodes, percussion), Jonathan Barahal (drums, vibraphone, Percussion, electronics), Jaribu Shahid (double bass, bass ukulele, percussion)
