photo: michelle meywes

BIO
Frank Rosaly (b. 5/30/74) is a drummer and composer currently living in Chicago. He has been involved in the improvised and experimental music community for 10 years where he has become an integral part of the Chicago scene, navigating a fine line between the vibrant improvised music, indy-rock, experimental and jazz communities. He contributes much of his time to performing, composing, as well as organizing musical events, while also touring regularly domestically and internationally.

Frank is currently active in many projects throughout Chicago as well as New York and in Europe. Some groups include Matana Robert's Chicago Project, Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten Quintet, Jeff Parker/Nels Cline Quartet, Josh Abrams Remindring, Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Valentine Trio, Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens & Project Project, The Josh Berman Quartet, The Jeb Bishop Trio, Jason Adasievicz’s Rolldown, Jorrit Dijkstra’s Flatlands Collective, Chicago Lucern Exchange, Hearts and Minds, Slow Cycle, Outskirts, Daniel Levin Trio and others. Rosaly also leads his own Quintet, Viscous, featuring Jaimie Branch, Kyle Bruckmann, James Falzone and Kevin Davis. Other performances in the recent past include collaborations with Peter Brotzmann, Tony Malaby, Anthony Coleman, Paul Flaherty, Marshall Allen, Louis Moholo, Eric Boeren, Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Walter Weirbos, among many others.

He is also involved in two solo projects. One is Milkwork: a study in integration of electronically manipulated percussion instruments, improvising dense sound walls with controlled feedback, overdriven amplified drums and creating soundscapes designed on analog instruments, blending these sounds with more traditional extended techniques on unamplified drum set. The other project, Softbeater, is a ‘solo drums with voice’ outing. It’s Frank’s version of a singer/songwriter performance, taking cues and drawing inspiration from Sonic Youth, Wire, Juana Molina and J Dilla.

Frank organizes and coordinates the Ratchet Series, a weekly showcase of creative music at the Skylark in Chicago. Frank is also faculty at the Old Town School of Folk Music where he teaches private lessons.

Frank earned a performance degree from NAU. He has studied with Billy Higgins, Peter Donald, Bob Moses, Joel DiBartolo, Dom Moio, Steve Hemphill, Robert Schulz, Michael Vatcher and with the staff at the Jazz Record Mart.

THOUGHTS
here are some random thoughts on what and why i'm doing what i'm doing:

i have been a student of music for 24 years, starting with private percussion lessons starting at eight years old continuing throughout high school and college. although i also earned my bachelors degree in music, i honestly feel my true musical studies, and ultimately my entire artistic philosophy, began to develop outside the restriction of the academic institution. i say this not to disregard my studies in school. i had the opportunity to study with some fine instructors. they helped me ascertain discipline, and taught me to question my own approach, which eventually lead me down the path i am on now. however, i found myself most free to create and discover once i began living as a musician, struggling, balancing life with my creative endeavors, traveling, succeeding, failing...

my musical journey is process -- my endeavors are meant to display, document and communicate that process. i play music to ask questions, and within this subjective art form, queries are not meant to be answered, but are meant to qualify new questions. Wonder has always been my one inexhaustible tool in creating. i believe that the work I put into this process charges the air i breathe, the space i occupy, and the energy i expend.

i believe all artists relegate at least some of their time and work towards defining themselves, their surroundings, to qualify their existence and to find relevance to their path. this helps create perceptual congruence to our audience, but moreover, context with which we perceive and react in our own reality. i find the process of creation the most humbling action I have ever attempted. it is my way of communicating goals, dreams and hopes. when i play music, i am in touch with my beliefs. i have been moved deeply by listening to music, and i am attempting to do the same with my own music, that is, to move someone who witnesses one of my performances. i would love to think that something that I play makes a listener feel a fraction of the joy I experience when i listen to outstanding music. if my music creates an avenue for a listener to experience joy, then I am truly satisfied, for I am helping the listener be present, and to be present is to be alive. to me, this is absolute purpose.