Hal Russell

Not resembling the elder-statesman profile of Fred Anderson and never affiliated with the AACM, Hal Russell nevertheless served as a vital bridge between Chicago’s avant-garde jazz community of the 1960s and its resurgence in the 1990s. Throughout the 1980s he sustained that lineage through the NRG Ensemble, a freewheeling unit capable of realizing his meticulously crafted pieces while conveying his surreal, almost vaudevillian wit. Born in Detroit on August 28, 1926, Russell took up drums at age four yet concentrated on trumpet during his college years; afterward he performed with several large ensembles, among them the orchestras of Woody Herman and Boyd Raeburn. In the 1950s he worked as a Chicago freelancer, handling both recording sessions and club engagements. Joining the Joe Daley Trio in 1959, he participated in the group’s 1963 Newport appearance, widely regarded as one of the first documented free-jazz performances. From the late 1960s onward Russell directed his own ensembles and expanded his instrumental palette to include trumpet and tenor saxophone. Although no commercial recordings appeared during the 1970s, privately captured material survives, notably the late-decade quintet Chemical Feast that featured longtime associate Mars Williams. Russell established the NRG Ensemble in 1979; for the greater part of its run the lineup included Williams, multi-instrumentalist Brian Sandstrom, and percussionist Steve Hunt. His debut commercial release arrived in 1981 with NRG Ensemble on the Nessa label, followed by additional early-1980s documents such as the 1982 session with Charles Tyler issued as Generation. By the late 1980s the group toured Europe regularly and entered the ECM catalog in 1990 with The Finnish/Swiss Tour. A 1991 Berlin performance alongside pianist Joel Futterman was issued as Naked Colours, and Hal’s Bells appeared on ECM the following year. Shortly after finishing the semi-autobiographical project The Hal Russell Story, Russell succumbed to heart failure in September 1992. Over the ensuing decade a steady stream of archival recordings continued to surface.