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Bassist Sue Cahill to release Evanstonia May 29, 2026
On Evanstonia, double bassist, composer, and educator Sue Cahill steps fully into what her composition mentor calls “personal music.” Known for decades as a commanding orchestral musician and devoted teacher, Cahill now claims a space where classical rigor, improvisational freedom, tango pulse, and lived experience converge.
Releasing May 29, 2026, Evanstonia (self-release) is both a homecoming and a declaration: music born from structure, but unwilling to remain confined by it. And, it’s about permission—permission to evolve, to blend influences, to honor where you come from, and to write what you know.
In 2015, standing at a crossroads in her career, Cahill made a deal with herself. If she stepped away from the security of university teaching and orchestral routine—even temporarily—she would finally pursue what had been quietly calling her for years: composition rooted in jazz and improvisation.
During a hiatus in teaching, she began studying composition with Boulder’s Art Lande, whose philosophy of writing “personal music” proved transformative. Rather than asking Cahill to mimic traditional jazz language, Lande encouraged her to blend her deep classical foundation with improvisatory exploration. The result is music that honors form while bending it, that embraces restraint as much as release.
“I didn’t want to abandon structure,” Cahill says. “I wanted to grow out of it.”
That evolution is audible across Evanstonia: early compositions reveal a more straight-ahead sensibility; later works open into unexpected harmonic turns, spacious phrasing, and melodic leaps that feel both deliberate and daring.
The album’s title track began as a melodic fragment Cahill wrote in high school. Decades later, she completed it—and renamed it Evanstonia, a nod to her hometown of Evanston, Illinois.
That North Shore upbringing—shaped by Chicago’s classical radio broadcasts, jazz programming, and the city’s restless creative energy—left an indelible imprint. “You can’t take Chicago out of a person,” Cahill reflects. “It’s always there.”
Evanstonia thus becomes more than a place name; in Cahill’s hands it’s a sonic landscape—edgy yet lyrical, grounded yet searching.
Several tracks emerge from profound personal experiences.
“June, February” pairs beginnings and endings in stark contrast. Inspired by the loss of Cahill’s 17-year-old niece and the passing of her closest friend within days of each other, the piece moves through grief without surrendering to it. Word painting and fractured imagery mirror the disorientation of loss; spacious melodic lines suggest resilience and remembrance.
Elsewhere, tenderness surfaces in “Violet Snow,” written for Cahill’s daughter. The piece captures the shifting light of childhood—how perspective transforms even the simplest scenes. “Fading to Autumn” leans into her natural affinity for twilight moods, exploring seasonal change as emotional metaphor.
And in “Serenata,” Cahill draws from nearly two decades immersed in the tango world. After the death of her friend and colleague, bassist Ken Harper, she stepped into a working tango ensemble where the bass carries rhythmic authority in the absence of drums. “Serenata”’s minor-to-major turns echo Argentine traditions, while wide melodic intervals and breathing space reflect Cahill’s fascination with tension and release.
Not to mention that playing for tango dancers until 3AM couldn’t help but refine her internal pulse. That rhythmic clarity now anchors even her most expansive improvisations.
Like many conservatory students, for much of her early career Cahill believed composition required a level of theoretical brilliance she didn’t possess. Years of competitive orchestral training reinforced a culture of replication—play it perfectly, precisely, faithfully.
Evanstonia quietly challenges that narrative.
Cahill’s journey from replication to creation informs her teaching as much as her artistry. She encourages students to master time and intonation—but also to understand the creative engine behind the music they perform. Interpretation, she insists, requires ownership.
This album embodies that philosophy: disciplined yet fearless, reverent yet exploratory. It is music that refuses to choose between worlds.
Instead, Sue Cahill builds her own.
Evanstonia will be independently released to all major platforms on May 29, 2026.
Sue Cahill, Double Bass
Dawn Clement, Piano and Vocals on “June February”
Dru Heller, Drums