The Freedom to Groove

Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark visited Pittsburgh most recently in April 2023, leading a new quartet called Edition Redux. The group was intriguing in part because of their instrumentation (reeds, tuba, electric keyboards, drums) as well as the fact that Vandermark’s cohorts were fresh faces, as opposed to his previous groups which often featured established players for Chicago and beyond, who also worked leading their own bands.

Everyone put on an impressive show that night, but drummer Lily Finnegan really stood out on the bandstand. Free improvisation works best when it has forward momentum and Finnegan delivered plenty of that – grabbing hand percussion while playing around her kit, switching to a heavy groove when the moment called for it, and acting as the relaxed yin to keyboardist Erez Dessel’s spastic yang during a duet. At the time, Finnegan didn’t have any releases under her own name, so I made a mental note to keep an eye out for her name. She could go places.

Fast-forward to 2026, and it seems more people feel the same thing. Finnegan was selected as one of seven artists in this year’s Next Jazz Legacy Program, presented by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Her band Heat On released their debut album in 2025, with a second on the way in a few weeks, following an energetic release earlier this year by a project called the Lily Finnegan Double Drum Quintet. This Friday, the drummer returns to Pittsburgh with HillHillHill, a new free improv trio with saxophonist Will Greene and cellist Ishmael Ali.

Speaking by phone from a tour van en route to Carrboro, North Carolina, Finnegan offers a thumbnail sketch of her musical trajectory and latest doings. Growing up just outside of Chicago in Evanston, she was drawn to the drums after hearing her parents’ Nirvana and Parliament albums. “When I was listening to music, I really heard the drums. It was more of a groove-based thing and I wanted to play along. I feel like drums are a great instrument because you can put on a record and play along,” she explains. “You can do that with other instruments too, but for drums, it feels very fun and kind of therapeutic. When you’re a kid, it’s a great thing to do.”

While taking lessons, she was introduced to albums by John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, and eventually she discovered drummers like Ed Blackwell and Milford Graves, both known for taking liberties with time keeping. “I feel like Ed Blackwell has been a standout to me, from his playing with Ornette [Coleman] and duos with Don Cherry. He does free playing but also very groovy and very melodic, which I really have always liked a lot,” she says. “Milford Graves also got me more into improvised music. [His playing] can be in a nonlinear pulse but it still grooves and have a dance to it.”

After finishing undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Finnegan attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where she was mentored by drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, the founder and artistic director of the school’s Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice. At that school, she heard about and applied to the Next Jazz Legacy Program, becoming one of seven women cohorts in the program’s fifth year.

Since she received the designation last spring, Finnegan has already gotten a lot out of it. Her mentor for the program is pianist Marilyn Crispell, an equally adventurous player well versed in free music. The pairing was a natural. “I went up to Woodstock, [New York], just to hang out with her for a day. We went on a hike together and just like talked about life and many different things,” Finnegan says. “We got to play a little and she said, ‘Why don’t you come back and we’ll do a recording together?’ I didn’t expect that to happen. It’s been a cool relationship.”

With jazz being a male-dominated music, the Next Jazz Legacy Series serves to encourage more woman to become active with the music. In the bigger picture, Finnegan says it complements her particular approach to playing. “I think that there’s a connection that people are seeing between free, improvised music, adventurous music, and fighting patriarchal views. Within improvised music, you’re playing around with hierarchy,” she says, adding, “Hopefully there isn’t a hierarchy and you’re changing the roles with each other. I think that connects with things like gender issues.”

HillHillHill, the band that comes to Pittsburgh this week, came together in Chicago over the past year. Each performance is totally improvised, and having the opportunity to do it every night for a 10-day stretch deepens the rapport between players. “We’re homing in on our transitions and different moments together,” Finnegan says. “But we’re getting better at listening to each other, understanding when each section is beginning or ending, including how we transition with each other.”

In this setting, the music can take myriad shapes, and Finnegan says that aspect makes it just as challenging as playing composed music. “There are questions you’re asking: when are you going with [your bandmates] and when are you going against them; and also the gray areas of that; going with someone for texture or dynamics or groove,” she explains. “It’s kind of an instinct - trusting your intuition and trusting the people you’re playing with.”

If this past year’s activities say anything about Finnegan’s instincts, she’s made some solid choices on and off the bandstand.

Friday, August 13. With Eli Namay & Jay Rauch, Frogonbough. 8 p.m. Pierogi Palace. (Note: the show has relocated from its original space.) DM pittsburghsoundpreserve@gmail.com for the address.