Painting jazz: Chicago artist sketches the scene

Perhaps you've seen him at the Green Mill or Constellation, seated close to the action, focusing intently on the musicians, glancing down at his sketchpad then looking back up at the stage.

His arm moves constantly, reaching for certain colors, applying them to paper, creating forms and shapes and rhythms that reflect what he hears.

Most people in the audience may be relaxing, reveling in the music, sipping a drink, whispering to a friend, pondering. But Chicago artist Lewis Achenbach is busily at work, attempting the impossible: to capture a most elusive music — jazz — in visual form.

Achenbach has been haunting Chicago's jazz rooms and festivals for the past three or four years, he estimates, chronicling in thoroughly personal terms the city's ever-expanding jazz landscape. He moved here from San Francisco in 2011, was struck by what he encountered and decided that he had to respond.

"I realized the Chicago scene is every night," says Achenbach.

"The scene out here is so rich, and most of the guys are so humble about what they're doing. And they welcomed me.

"This scene needs to be documented," adds Achenbach. "I know there's photographs. And going off on a slight tangent, (consider) a Louis Armstrong record. You listen to it, you see photographs. I'd think: That's probably not what it was like to hear the music live. It's like watching a video of a video of a video.

"What must it have been like to hear Louis Armstrong live? It must have been new. It must have blown your mind. So I thought this is my job: Use my gifts to document what's happening. It's very rich now. I feel like I'm plucking fruits from a very fruitful tree."

Indeed Achenbach has been practically ubiquitous at Chicago's jazz shows, drawing Herb Alpert and Lani Hall at City Winery last Thursday; sketching Henry Threadgill at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival last month; documenting an eruption of sound during the 50th anniversary concert of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall last April.

I'll leave it to the art critics to weigh the merits of this work, but there's no question it gets at the vibrancy of the music in deeply idiosyncratic terms. Achenbach's images — crowded with color, punctuated with long lines and surging with energy — express not only the vitality of Chicago jazz in the 21st century but his own ardor for it.

Much of his work zeroes in on the jazz avant-garde, musicians experimenting boldly in work that avoids traditional concepts of melody, backbeat, harmony and structure. Adventurous audiences flock to this idiom in Chicago, a nexus for jazz experimentation since the dawn of the 20th century. In gravitating to music by Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Ken Vandermark and other iconoclasts, Achenbach is celebrating a core identity of Chicago jazz.

"I think it takes a certain kind of person to not only enjoy that kind of music, but put yourself in a room where this can be challenging," says Achenbach, citing a 2014 performance by the explosive Chicago Reed Quartet.

"These guys are all playing at the same time — some people run out of the room. I find when I'm drawing, it helps me listen. It occupies part of my brain so I can hear."

"I've also drawn Colin Hay," adds Achenbach, referencing a pop singer-songwriter best known as frontman of Men at Work. "I know what songs he's going to do.

"But with creative (improvised) music, it's wide open. It's me going along with their courage … kind of like my version of sky diving. I have no idea what's going to happen. It's kind of scary, because I do sometimes work my way into a corner. The challenge is: How do I get out of this?"

But jazz musicians, who similarly invent their art as they proceed, often find themselves in quite the same quandary, trying to extricate themselves from a puzzle of their own making. That, of course, is a large part of the risk and thrill of the art form, and the parallels between the musicians' struggles and Achenbach's may help explain why so many players have allowed him to sketch their shows (he always asks permission in advance, he says, and "if someone says that's not OK with that vibe, that's cool").

In perhaps the ultimate compliment, some musicians have incorporated his work into theirs. Most recently, flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Mike Reed have used an Achenbach original as cover art for their forthcoming album, "Artifacts," a celebration of the AACM's golden anniversary.

Achenbach's circuitous journey to this point began when he was a teenager in the Philadelphia area and discovered jazz, quickly transitioning "from Iggy Pop to Pharoah Sanders," as he puts it. He studied film and animation at New York University and became enchanted with the work of New York artist Jeff Schlanger, who long has been at the forefront of painting live jazz performances.

With Schlanger's blessing, Achenbach says, he took up the cause in Chicago and eventually began creating what he calls Jazz Occurrences: live jazz performances in which he invites the audience to watch him paint and to enjoy a concurrent exhibition of various artists' work (the next Jazz Occurrence will be Saturday night at Constellation). In this, too, Achenbach is building on the work of his elders: Chicago drummer-bandleader Kahil El'Zabar long ago was staging multimedia music-and-art happenings here and around the world.

Though Achenbach supports his family by working as a "laborer, house painter, tradesman," he says, he sees his jazz work inevitably taking over.

"I paint in the day, I go out late at night," says Achenbach, who believes the free-flowing nature of jazz has become a guiding principle in his life.

"I find that listening to improvisational music, especially live, really makes you more adaptable to your life situation."

We all have to improvise in life, in other words — jazz shows us how.

"Portraits in Jazz": Howard Reich's e-book collects his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, plus profiles of past masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at www.chicagotribune.com/ebooks.

Expertise – Lewis Achenbach

Education: He holds a BFA in Film/Animation from NYU.

Film Animator: He collaborated with master filmmaker Michael Sporn on several storybook-to-film shorts, such as Chris Raschke’s Yo! Yes? for Weston Woods and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, as well as numerous spots for HBO and WGBH’sBetween the Lions.

 Curator: Since 2008, he has curated art shows in cities across the U.S. Most recently, his work includes an exhibition at Aurora City Hall August 2015 sponsored by Mayor Thomas J. Weisner

Children’s Workshops: He received rave reviews from the Girl Scouts painting workshop he facilitated in Wheaton, IL. He taught graffiti art for grades 3-5 in Winfield, IL.

In a Matoaca, VA elementary school he was invited to be the artist-in-residence, and taught 2-day workshops for each class from Kindergarten to 5th grade on how to paint while listening to live music modeled after his Jazz Occurrence paint performances. His collaboration with the art and music teachers made it an “awesome experience” in the words of teachers and “a blast!” for the students. 

Author/Illustrator: His published book HEAR THIS BOOK, Documentary Drawings 2012-2014 is a collection of art paired with recollections from the depicted musicians and venue organizers. It is sold on Amazon as well as local Chicago booksellers.

Illustrator: He illustrated Macbeth for the Chicago Public Schools in 2013 as a Play in a Book adaptation for students to either read the play as a book or act as a play.     

Illustrator (continued): In 2014 he illustrated Gilgamesh in the Play in a Book format for Chicago Public Schools.

 Art therapy: His background includes working with drug addicted teens and mentally ill elders as a behavioral health specialist

Specific Experiences

The specific experience Lewis Achenbach has related to a successful event includes:

Orchestrating successful Jazz Occurrences and art exhibitions in Chicago and the Chicagoland area including Aurora, West Chicago, Wheaton and Glen Ellyn which drew large audiences and press coverage

Multiple well-attended Jazz Occurrence events including:

JazzO1: May 23rd 2014 with the Vincent Davis Achtet featuring Ari Brown, Mars Williams, Jim Baker, Lewis Achenbach, Harrison Bankhead, Preyas Roy, Scott Hesse and Vincent Davis with Aurora Public Art Commission at David L Pierce History Center

JazzO2: August 1st 2014 with the Jazz Occurrence Quintet featuring Volcano Radar members Julia Miller, Elbio Barilari, Edward Wilkerson, Rollo Radford, Tim Davis and Lewis Achenbach with Aurora Public Art Commission at David L Pierce History Center

Working with local businesses, such as The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, IL where his promotion of the November 18, 2014 and Nov 17th, 2015“Illuminated Sound”  live painting of guitarist Molly Rose as she performed resulted in a packed, shoulder to shoulder audience of customers at the store. 

Jazz Occurrences 

All Jazz Occurrences filmed by artist David Weathersby of SubVerse Studios for the documentary “This Is Jazz Occurrence” using live footage and interviews from all JazzOs and animations by Lewis Achenbach.

JazzO10:June 3, 2016,  John Pazdan at the Aurora Public Art Commission, 20 E Downer Place, Aurora, IL 60507

JazzO9: Performance and Jazz Occurrence Art Exhibition Opening May 6, 2016, Renee Baker Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (CMOP) event with artist Lewis Achenbach at the Aurora Public Art Commission, 20 E Downer Place, Aurora, IL 60507

JazzO6 – JazzO8: Jazz Occurrences for Chicago Artists Month hosted by WDCB 90.9

JazzO8: November 14, 2015, Chris Weller’s Open Forum Project performs with Lewis Achenbach improv painting with Ravenswood Chicago Public School students at the Fulton Street Collective, 1821 Hubbard Street, Chicago, IL

This is also the JOAE3 (3rd Jazz Occurrence Art Exhibition), featuring artworks created during these CAM JazzOs

Adults and youths exhibit together, and paint the “frequency in the room”

JazzO7: October 24, 2015, Volcano Radar hosted by High Concept Labs, MANA Contemporary, 2233 S Throop, Chicago 60608. Volcano Radar is Julia Miller, Elbio Barilari, Lou Ciccotelli, Harrison Bankhead.

Lewis Achenbach live improv painting

Special guest artist Daniel Zalkus

6pm pre-show performance and Q&A with children from Chicago Public Schools live painting

Recorded by David Zuchowski of DaverNoise

JazzO6: October 10, 2015, Vincent Davis Percussion Plus at Constellation, 3111 N Western, Chicago, IL

Link: http://www.chicagoartistsmonth.org/jazz-occurrence-no6-vincent-davis-percussion-plus-lewis-achenbach  

Link: http://www.constellation-chicago.com/event/942875-jazz-occurrence-6-vincent-chicago/ 

Vincent Davis, Hanah Jon Taylor , Matt Gold, Preyas Roy, Darius Savage, Junius Paul, Corey Wilkes, Andrew Lawrence, Ben Schmidt-Swartz

Lewis Achenbach with brushes on canvas

Special guests: the Urban Sketchers of Chicago drawing from the audience

Exhibitions & Performances

November 27-29, 2015, Chicago Tardis, documenting interviews with actors from the BBC production of “Dr. Who”

November 17, 2015, Molly Rose/Achenbach duo performs in Glen Ellyn Bookstore for Ladies’ Night Out, featured in the Glancer Magazine

November 13, 2015, Jazz Plays Dead at the Beer House Chicago Lombard, Achenbach paints live and captures the vibe on canvases

November 6, 2015, TEDx JazzO at Yellow Box Naperville

October 17, 2015 William Parker Constellation Chicago

October 14 and 19, 2015, Ravenswood Elementary two-day artist residency workshop with Kindergarten through 5th grade

October 2, 2015, The Thing at Constellation Chicago

October 1, 2015, Herb Alpert at City Winery Chicago

September 27, 2015, Formal documenting of Roscoe Mitchell performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in response to “The Freedom Principle” exhibit

May 12-13, 2015, Jazz Education Occurrence, Richmond, VA workshops with Matoaca Elementary School and Ft. Lee Jazz Combo

Link: https://sites.google.com/a/ccpsnet.net/maes/home/activities/jazz

January 2014, Painting Workshop for Girl Scout Brownie Troop, Wheaton, IL

December 2014, Album Cover Art for LIVE at the VELVET LOUNGE, Sanders/Bankhead/Ra Album art 2014©lewisachenbach/ ARS

November 2014, Chicago Tardis Documentary Painting with composer Dominic Glynn