The Resonance Ensemble, an international New Jazz group, began in 2007 as a co-presentation by Ken Vandermark and Marek Winiarski. After performing in Poland over the course of several years with a large number of groups (the Vandermark 5, duo with Paal Nilssen-Love, Sonore, Free Fall, Powerhouse Sound, the Frame Quartet and many more), Vandermark decided that is was time to organize a band that included musicians from that part of the world. After consulting with Winiarski (who runs Not Two records and is an organizer of Jazz concerts in Krakow), the two combined their resources and knowledge in order to put together a large unit of improvisers from the contemporary scene. The Resonance Ensemble's music has advanced Vandermark's composing methods for large groups, work that started with the early music of Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet and also the Territory Bands. Much of this new material combines his interest in “suite forms” (perhaps most influenced by Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus) and a collaging approach to improvising structures that he began with the Territory Band. The project provided Vandermark with the first opportunity in his career to do nothing but compose for a week. In September of 2009, he began a new approach to writing for the project, a series of “modular pieces,” which can be reassembled for each performance, giving added spontaneity to both the improvising and the compositional structure. The results of these efforts, coupled with the creativ

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