Mr. Blotto was born in Chicago as an off-night vehicle for musicians who loved each others playing but were in different bands at the time. The only rule was that they would only play what they loved. That philosophy continues today and has led Mr. Blotto into unique musical situations.

Mr. Blotto takes the Jam band asthetic into areas unfamiliar to the standard Jam Scene. They have been known to cover entire albums by Led Zeppelin and the Who as well as perform entire shows of Country and Reggae. Artists as diverse as the Grateful Dead, the Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson and The Velvet Underground have seen their material interpreted by Mr. Blotto in the 2000+ shows the band has performed in the last 15 years, yet covers only pepper the bands hefty catalog of original material stemming from five studio albums and other unreleased crowd favorites.

The Drexel Project is a fearless collective of Chicago’s best emerging improvisers.  The group draws on its collectively vast cross-genre musical experiences to take on continuously new music with precociousness and reckless abandon.  Whether its electronics, emo, 11th century chant, jazz, or french impressionism, no musical stone is off-limits.  The group is led by bassist and composer, Kurt Schweitz, who has received multiple grants to write music for this group.

“As anyone who has seen bassist Kurt Schweitz in action live as a side man around town will attest, Schweitz is one of the best young players on the scene. Don’t let the baby face fool you, this cat is a monster on the bass. Now with the release of the excellent Mulitvalent – his first album as a leader – his additional talents as a composer and band leader are made quite apparent… The quirky ‘Open Air’ offers yet another example of Schweitz interesting writing… The album-ending ‘Savory Morsels’ is one of my favorite tracks of the year.” – Brad Walseth, JazzChicago.net, (March 20, 2009)