muse café

Who I'd like to meet:

I'd like to officially state to the Chicago scene in general, that at the end of March 2007, the Muse Cafe will be closing. The partners at the cafe, Dave Z Marsalek & Joe Grzesik, have decided to hang our towel on the cafe venture. We have the option of gracefully exiting the lease at this time, and we've decided to take it. With many speed bumps along the way, and several difficult unavoidable circumstances and obstacles...the decision to close our doors has been a hard but necessary one to make. Amidst a year & 1/2 of the blossoming of a beautiful experimental culture scene at muse, Joe and I will be moving on to other venutures...no doubt extending some of the elements of Muse in other directions. THANK YOU, ONE AND ALL, THAT HAVE BEEN A PART OF THIS SHORT-LIVED DYNASTY! YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!!! YOU'VE HELPED TO MAKE THIS DREAM/VISION ALL THAT MORE REAL AND TANGIBLE! TO ALL THE AMAZING MUSICIANS THAT HAVE EITHER PLAYED A/O SUPPORTED THIS VENUE, I THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR CREATIVE VOICE WITH US! FROM MY END, YOUR PRESENCE HAS MADE THIS VENUE WHAT IT IS TODAY, AN OPEN-MINDED ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH CREATIVE PEOPLE SHARE NEW IDEAS WITH ONE ANOTHER. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN QUITE A VENUE AS MUSE CAFE, AND YOU HAVE ALL BEEN A PART OF THAT IN SOME WAY. THANK YOU! Special thanks must be given to the following: Toni Asante Lightfoot {Monday Muse Mashup}, The Gunnelpumpers, Ways & Means Trio, The Chicago Junglebop Syndicate, Don & Jazztronik, 7 League Boots & Electro-Acoustic Workshop, and all the artists that showed their works at our cafe! TO ALL REGULARS OF OUR CAFE, YOU WILL BE MISSED...WE HOPE TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOU! YOUR SUPPORT OF OUR RESTAURANT HAS KEPT US MOVING FORWARD. Thanks to the River West/West Town area for your generous support of our business {homestead group, the chicago dramatists, Moksha Yoga Center, Intuit Gallery of Outsider Art, The Academy of the Arts, and all others that I didn't mention} and all those that live and work in this area that frequented our business. :::A short word on the continuation of muse, post-muse::: The Workshops at muse cafe will be in transition to be moved to other locations around the city, and I will be acting as a promoter in this case. If anyone has solid ideas for where these should move to, message Dave The Chicago Junglebop Workshop , which has been going strong monthly since Dec 06, is in search of an open-minded venue to continue its experimentation with the jazz canon and mixing jungle and drumNbass. Thank you Matthew Golombisky, John Bescup and all the others in the Syndicate and any cats that made it out to see what's brewing! I thank you! Also a big ups to Mitch for video-taping all the Junglebop Workshops! The Electro-Acoustic Workshop will be continuing with 7 League Boots. Destination not available yet. Keep posted...this one's been going on monthly since Feb 2006. Some of the finest electro-acoustic musicians in town have contributed to this jam session. Thank you Brian, henry & peter of 7LB for making this event possible on a regular basis! The Jazztronik Experiment with DJ Don Solo & Co will all be continued in some way, shape, or form. This event has been happening regularly since spring 2006, and has involved some amazing improvisers mixing acoustic performance and laptop sampling/direction. Thank you don for premiering this event at Muse Cafe, and to all the Allstars for participating! The official MUSE CAFE WEBSITE will be altered soon to act as a promotional vehicle for the experimental chicago scene. All the full details for this advancement have not been workedout, but there is talk of an online cd store for chicago artists. More on that when it's news. The myspace page will act as documentation of what has happened in the last year and half, as well as promoting the music, arts, poetry, theatre & film scene in town. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT & VIVA THE CHICAGO EXPERIMENTAL SCENE!