You could write a book about everything he's done in his decades on the scene, but for now I'll just mention a few chapters in the Zerang story. He's a member of the great free-improv group Liof Munimula, founded in 1982 with Dan Scanlan and Don Meckley; he programmed a crucial experimental-music series at Link's Hall for years; and as the drummer in the Vandermark Quartet in the early 90s, he helped convince Ken Vandermark to stick it out in Chicago when the saxophonist was considering moving back to Boston.
Zerang will play in two different configurations--first in a trio with keyboardist Jim Baker (another local treasure, whose career runs parallel to his) and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, then in a behemoth septet with Gustafsson, Baker, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, bassist Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten, bassist Kent Kessler (another old-school chum of Zerang's), and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.
The Thing, the muscular trio of Gustafsson, Haaker Flaten, and Nilssen-Love, will open the evening with a set of its own. Last January the group recorded a new album in Chicago with Steve Albini, but though its projected release date has come and gone, it isn't out yet.
