Vent de folie salutaire à Chicago (A breath of fresh air in Chicago)
Alain Drouot | Citizen Jazz (February 9, 2026)
In Citizen Jazz, a French-language feature first published in 2020 and republished in 2026 as part of a jazz series revisits Extraordinary Popular Delusions, highlighting the group’s long-running weekly residency at Beat Kitchen and the club’s unlikely but important role as a steady home for their experimental free-jazz performances.
Vent de folie salutaire à Chicago
Si le docteur Raoult ne prescrivait pas Extraordinary Popular Delusions comme remède à la sinistrose ambiante, il commettrait une faute (...)
Citizen Jazz
A breath of fresh air in Chicago
If Dr. Raoult did not prescribe Extraordinary Popular Delusions as a remedy for the prevailing gloom, he would be committing professional misconduct!
Extraordinary Popular Delusions (EPD) is an avant-garde group in many respects. They play a highly unrestrained form of free jazz and introduced physical distancing well before it became fashionable. Indeed, the quartet, "led" by pianist Jim Baker—and which takes its name from a work by Scottish author Charles MacKay entitled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds —has been performing for about fifteen years before small audiences, almost every week.
In its genre, EPD is one of Chicago's best and most underrated bands—and probably far beyond. Around late 2005 or early 2006, their weekly rehearsals began at Hotti Biscotti, a rather rustic bar. When it closed, they moved to Beat Kitchen, a club better known for its rock programming. In 2010, the quartet adopted its current name, with Jim Baker feeling that the extraordinarily popular fantasies were an apt description of improvised music.
While they may seem harmless and have met with little success, these iconoclasts are not exactly unknown. Saxophonist Mars Williams , bassist/guitarist/trumpeter Brian Sandstrom , and drummer Steve Hunt recorded for ECM with the most eccentric musician the Chicago scene has ever known, the late Hal Russell, who passed away in 1992.
On October 24th, the quartet found themselves at Constellation instead of their usual haunt. In many ways, our four protagonists remained true to themselves. Hunt conjured sonic earthquakes; Williams explored ear-splitting frequencies; Sandstrom made his electric bass growl like a grumpy bear; and the pianist ventured into every register: tonight, his opening set even evoked the best of Keith Jarrett. The group also still knows how to surprise. This time, it was with unexpected poetic interludes. Finally, there was what one might call the fifth man : those sounds whose origin was impossible to pinpoint.
It is not known whether EPD is effective against the coronavirus, but it is a valuable antidote to the current blues.
That said, the band seems a bit rusty after the pandemic-imposed break, as if it were a rough restart to the season. The playing is more restrained and less explosive. While the main advantage of playing at Constellation is that Baker has a real piano rather than his electric keyboard, this could very well change the band's dynamic. Another downside is that he's neglecting his analog synthesizer a bit too much in favor of the piano. Indeed, he's long been a master of this instrument, producing otherworldly sounds. And here, these simultaneously unsettling and stimulating elements are too few and far between.
But let's not be too quick to dismiss it. We don't know if EPD is effective against the coronavirus, but conclusive laboratory tests aren't necessary to affirm that it constitutes a valuable antidote to the current blues.
By Alain Drouot // Published on November 29, 2020
