The Engines is a collaborative quartet founded in the spring of 2005. The group began as trio, featuring several mainstays of the Chicago improvised music scene: Dave Rempis on saxophones, Nate McBride on bass, and Tim Daisy on drums. In the spring of 2006, trombonist Jeb Bishop was added to the group for one concert. The dynamic of this lineup worked so well that Bishop immediately became a regular member of the band.

All of these musicians have distinguished themselves as leaders with their own groups, but formed this band to purposely shirk that duty in favor of a more equal musical relationship that better reflects the nature of their improvisations. Each member contributes original compositions, providing a wide range of expression from high energy jousting over driving bass vamps to quieter moments of melodic exploration. With McBride on both acoustic and electric bass, the band can explore some of the sonic textures associated with the early AACM, or launch into hard-hitting Zeppelin-like grooves, and they use this range of possibilities to its fullest.

In the fall of 2007, their first self-titled cd was released on Bruno Johnson’s well-known Okkadisk imprint. The group toured the US and Canada in December of that year, and followed up with a European tour in the fall of 2008. Their second release, “Wire and Brass,” was a live recording made at Chicago’s Hungry Brain in April of 2008, and released by Okkadisk in February of 2010. The band finished a second tour of Europe in support of that release in March 2010.
 
The Relax Attack Jazz Series showcases our vision for presenting Chicago's top jazz artists in a lively atmosphere, full of cocktail-shaking and spirited conversation. Every Tuesday night at The Whistler.