A14| Tuesday, December 1, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
they look back and think, ‘My dad
wasn’t afraid to try new things.’”The Workout
Dr. Sullivan trains on silks one to
two hours, three to five times a
week. With seasons changing, he
has repurposed a sail shade to
block the wind, and moved his rig
closer to an outdoor fireplace. He’s
added a string of lights to account
for shorter daylight hours.
He warms up by doing 15 min-
utes of yoga with special emphasis
on spinal mobility and hamstring
flexibility. Sun salutations, wheel
pose, revolved triangle and splits
are staple poses, with handstands
mixed in for balance.
He spends 15 minutes warmingup on the silks. He starts with four
sets of 15- to 20-foot climbs using
various foot grips. To descend, he
performs hip locks, where the silks
loop around his hips so his body is
perpendicular to the floor. He then
uses the tail of the silks to generate
spin and drop and hang from just
his hands. “I use the momentum to
spin like an ice skater,” he says.
“Over time I build more tolerance
to the dizziness.” He is working on
descending with a wheeldown,
where his legs are in a straddle fac-
ing sideways and he spirals them
around like a helicopter rotor.
He’ll perform about six more
drills, including inverted knee
hooks with sit-ups alternating
sides by swinging down slowlyaround the silks and hooking with
the other leg. “This is super-in-
tense core and grip work,” he says.
He also climbs up and wraps his
feet in an inverted double ankle
hang and performs 10 sit ups. He
spends 25 minutes working on a
new move and then does a five-
minute cooldown. If he’s working
on new choreography, he’ll train
for another 30 to 60 minutes.
The family added a workout
room during the pandemic with a
treadmill and weights. He supple-
ments silks training with power
yoga, mountain biking, strength
training and running for a total of
eight workouts a week. “Training
for a show pushes me right to the
edge of my physical limit,” he says.DEE DWYER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (3)Anesthesiologist Robert Sullivan
on his custom rig for aerial silks
in his yard in Frederick, Md.are softer, subtler, and the music
draws you into its dense, gorgeous
weave. This is the case on “Dimen-
sional Stardust” (out now). It fea-
tures Mr. Mazurek and 12 other
leading musicians, many of whom
also built their formidable reputa-
tions on the Chicago music scene
since the ’90s. They include trum-
peter Jaimie Branch, drummer
John Herndon, flutist Nicole
Mitchell, guitarist Jeff Parker, cel-
list Tomeka Reid, vibraphonist
Joel Ross and drummer Chad Tay-
lor—an all-star cast.
Mr. Mazurek, who is 55 years old
and now lives in Marfa, Texas, is a
prolific musician with more than 70
recordings as a leader or co-leader,
most of them on smaller labels.
This recording was made for Inter-
national Anthem, a Chicago-based
label that has documented much of
the thriving music there, where Mr.
Mazurek remains a pivotal figure,
and it is being released via a part-
nership with Nonesuch. The larger
label has put out four videos from
the recording, each expanding on
his themes; each can be found on
its YouTube channel.
Mr. Mazurek formed the Explod-
ing Star Orchestra in 2005 after a
commission from the Chicago Cul-tural Center and the Jazz Institute
of Chicago to assemble a big band
that reflected the city’s sound. “Di-
mensional Stardust” is that band’s
seventh recording, and all of them
deal with futurist and intergalactic
themes—fitting for a group led by a
musician who was first inspired to
pursue his art by seeing the legend-
ary Afrofuturist band the Sun Ra
Arkestra in 1981. Sun Ra’s work in-
fluenced the music for this new re-
cording, and in the press notes Mr.
Mazurek also credits Béla Bartók,
Bill Dixon, Gil Evans, Pedro Santos,
and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.He first presented these composi-
tions with players from America
and local musicians in Berlin in
2018 before returning to Chicago
the following year for recording
sessions with this band.
Most of the 10 tracks on the
43-minute program have a light
feel. The dominant sounds are of
cello, flute, vibraphones, guitar
and small percussion instruments.
“Sun Core Tet (Parable 99)”
launches the album with a string
introduction followed by vibes and
flute to create a catchy theme. Mr.
Mazurek was particularly inter-ested in contrapuntal elements,
and electronics offset vigorous
play from the other instruments
before Ms. Mitchell takes the lead
for the remainder of the tune. “A
Wrinkle in Time Sets Concentric
Circles Reeling” uses a similar
structure but adds a spoken-word
intro; horns arrive toward the end
to give the music a warmer feel.
Another highlight is “The Ca-
reening Prism Within (Parable 43),”
which puts drums out front to drive
a diverse mix of flute, horns, elec-
tronics and electric guitar, and the
music gains heft without ruining the
tranquil veneer. The title track fea-
tures a foundation of vibes and bass
with interlocking lines contrasted
with drumming and horns. The
magic of this music is that there are
few long solos, yet the compositions
and arrangements enable these vir-
tuosos to shine in short compelling
segments. In contrast to the scrappy
sounds from many of Mr. Mazurek’s
small bands, combos that recall
hardscrabble streets, the music on
“Dimensional Stardust” suggests a
large ensemble performing in a
richly textured garden.Mr. Johnson writes about jazz for
the Journal.S
ome of the best music by cor-
netist and composer Rob Ma-
zurek is from his small
groups—various configurations of
Chicago Underground and of São
Paulo Underground (he is from the
former city and has lived in the
latter)—and it’s feisty and tena-
cious.It’sasifhisplayerswere
looking for other combos with
which to rumble. Trumpet lines
puncture the air in attack, the per-
cussion rattles forth cantanker-
ously. The Brazilian bands some-
times sound like they’ve wandered
off a Carnival parade route to
make their own merriment.
When Mr. Mazurek leads larger
ensembles, he often takes a gen-
tler, more measured—but no less
BRITT MAZUREKrewarding—approach. The linesMUSIC REVIEW
Futuristic
Big-Band
Sounds
BYMARTINJOHNSONRob Mazurek leads his Exploding Star Orchestra on a new albumFinicky family:Dr. Sullivan is
an omnivore, but his daugh-
ters are vegetarian and his
wife is borderline vegan. “It’s
a challenge to meet every-
one’s dietary wishes,” he says.
Pre-performance:“I’ll cut al-
cohol to drop weight,” he
says.“Ifoundeven3to
pounds weight loss is very
noticeable in a four-minute
routine.”Essential Gear:Dr. Sullivan
had a custom rig made by
Circus Gear. Throw in a pulley
system, hardware, 15 yards of
fabric and a crash pad and
the cost was shy of $3,000.THE BASICS
W
hen Robert Sulli-
van decided to
take his yoga prac-
tice up a notch
threeyearsago,he
didn’t realize that
would take him 20 feet off the
floor. Dr. Sullivan, who has a fear
of heights, had mistakenly signed
up for a class in aerial silks. Unlike
aerial yoga, which is typically done
while hanging in silks three feet
off the ground, aerial silks requires
youtoclimb15to20feethighand
perform circus-worthy feats.
Rather than run, he stood capti-
vated by the level of strength, flexi-
bility and discipline the practice re-
quired. An anesthesiologist based in
Frederick, Md., Dr. Sullivan thought
he was in good shape. To climb the
silk, you have to pull and crunch the
body up and then wrap it around
your foot so you can stand and con-
tinue climbing. “It took two months
of conditioning for me to gain the
grip and core strength to climb,”
the 49-year-old says. And it took
nearly a year for him to overcome
his fear of heights.
He faced another fear in Septem-
ber 2019 when he performed with
his studio, Luna Aerial Dance and
Performing Arts in Frederick, Md. “I
do not like the limelight,” he says.
“I get stage fright.” Dr. Sullivan per-
formed a routine with a teenage
classmate, and when he led off with
an upside-down hang, he heard the
audience gasp.Growing up with
asthma, Dr. Sullivan
says he was far from
athletic. His aerial
training has given
him newfound physi-
cal confidence, and
performing has awak-
ened a long-dormant
creative side.
When the virus
forced his studio to
close temporarily, Mr.
Sullivan panicked.
“Aerial is the exact
opposite of riding a
bike,” he says. “One
week off and you’ll
feel shaky starting
again.”
He found a man in North Caro-
lina who built circus rigs, and
drove down to acquire a 23-foot-
tall rig for his yard. “I think the
neighbors are afraid to ask what it
is,” he jokes.
His wife, Lisa Sullivan, origi-
nally got him into yoga and prefers
to stick to a mat. His son, 15, re-
cently started weightlifting and
was surprised by the strength silks
require. “He’s intrigued,” Dr. Sulli-
van says. He has convinced his two
daughters, ages 17 and 12, to prac-
tice with him. They are working on
a modern version of “Little Red
Riding Hood” choreographed to
the song “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
“It’s an unusual daughter-daddy
bonding activity,” he says. “I hopeWHAT'S YOUR WORKOUT?| JEN MURPHY
This Doctor Elevates His Yoga Practice
PERSONAL JOURNAL.
NYwsj_ 20201201 _a 014 _p 2 jw 336000 _ 0 _a 01400 _ 1 ________ns 2020 .crop.pdf 1 01 - Dec- 20 07 : 06 : 17