Never Enough Hope / Tobin Summerfield

Never Enough Hope is the brainchild of Chicago-based composer/improviser Tobin Summerfield.

Summerfield's most notorious work has come with Chicago's Crush Kill Destroy, and Detroit-based Larval (Cuneiform Records). As an active member on the Chicago free music scene as well, Summerfield regularly plays alongside folks such as Frank Rosaly, Aram Shelton, Jaimie Branch, Keefe Jackson, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and many others. His aesthetic employs the entire spectrum of the diverse groups he contributes to, moving from the collective voice of rock, post-rock and punk; New York No Wave minimalist/maximalist extremes; joyful big band theatricality; highly orchestrated new music soundscapes; and powerful, dense, freewheeling improvised music to lush, thick polytonal/polyrhythmic textures.

Never Enough Hope is the synthesis of Summerfield's outlook: the emotional immediacy of free music matched and balanced by the satisfaction derived from great composed music. The Gift Economy, Never Enough Hope's Contraphonic debut, is born of Summerfield's desire to harness all these experiences into one unit. Utilizing both rock and free-music idioms into the orchestration, which takes shape in the form of a 20-piece ensemble featuring scores of saxophones, vibraphones, and violins, mingling with guitar, bass, trumpets, and dual drum kits, it's in the precise voicing of every individual instrument that gives Never Enough Hope its weight.

Summerfield composes with each member of the ensemble in mind--player, improviser, and composer--all their unique voices represented. The musicians in Never Enough Hope are Summerfield's peers, heroes and teachers. The songs and experiences that inspire the pieces featured on The Gift Economy are born of its constituents. Never Enough Hope is like a family reunion, and an all-star team.

Upcoming Shows

Nothing right now.

Downloads / URLs

Press Photo (72dpi)
Press Photo (300dpi)
"Grant Park" (mp3)
"Even If It's Sunday" (mp3)
myspace.com/neverenoughhope

Releases on Contraphonic

  • Available now in the ContraStore in MP3 format.
    Working Up To Full Reflection. CON 085. Released: 10.27.09
    Tracklisting: Even If It's Sunday / The Letter C / Love At Its Best / May My Heart Always / Requiem for Monday / Working Up To Full / For Whenever
  • Available now in the ContraStore in CD and MP3 format.
    The Gift Economy. CON 067. Released: 04.08.08
    Tracklisting: The Banner/ Des Moines / Two Ghosts at the Table / Grant Park / The Light Tilts Out / A Gift
    Yet another truly unorthodox and fascinating album, this release features the compositions of Chicagoan Tobin Summerfield, known for his work with Crush Kill Destroy and Detroit's Larval. Summerfield creates a remarkable sound, mixing an avant-rock/post-punk sound with a big band set up. Furthermore, the project features some Chicago jazz stalwarts, including Jamie Branch, Aram Shelton, Dave Rempis, Jason Ajemian, and Frank Rosaly. Big names or not, Summerfield deserves significant attention as a creative, unclassifiable musical mind. WNUR Radio Chicago Jazz Pick of the Week

    ...the six-part suite on The Gift Economy is in a constant state of transformation--melody lines and rhythms shift abruptly and whole sections of the ensemble (strings, reeds, brass, etc) drop in and out. There are a few isolated solos, but most of the work is written out. It's an impressive feat, a kind of supermagnified orchestration of the terse vocabulary of no-wave... Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

    ...The Gift Economy presents six tracks that combine abstract accidental jazz with what might best be described as progressive modern classical. This album is subtle, peculiar, heady, and unpredictable...and probably too unconventional for the average listener. Cool complex cuts include "The Banner," "Two Ghosts at the Table," "The Light Tilts Out," and "A Gift." Strangely addictive stuff... LMNOP/BabySue

    On lineup alone, Never Enough Hope certainly looks like a jazz juggernaut. Chicago free jazz heavyweights like bassist Jason Ajemian, drummer Frank Rosaly and saxophonist Dave Rempis anchor the massive 20-piece ensemble, replete with string section, dual drummers and a battalion of winds. But Toby Summerfield, a guitarist/bassist who only conducts here, is already known for infusing rock's minimalist ethos into the squall of improvised music. And he turns this jazz-centric collection of players into a concise and magnificently rude rock band. Time Out Chicago, Matt Lurie