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Steve Turre finds great jazz inside a shell
July 10, 2010
Even if he hadn't picked up his trombone Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, Steve Turre would have seduced his audience with a far less likely instrument: the conch shell.
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Glen Ellyn fest charts intimate feel
July 9, 2010
Can a perpetually growing jazz festival retain its intimacy?
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Big bands of Chicago aim to ride out storms
July 6, 2010
These are strange, challenging — and perhaps promising — times for Chicago's biggest jazz ensembles.
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Jazz venues plan weekend fireworks
July 2, 2010
Jazz in Chicago does not slow down for the holiday weekend.
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Only open since March, Club Blujazz closes
July 1, 2010
Club Blujazz, which opened last March at 1540 W. North Ave., has closed
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Jazz world unites to salute Anderson
June 30, 2010
Who was Fred Anderson?
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The South Side swings again
June 29, 2010
The tempo of jazz on the South Side has been quickening.
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The Mayne Stage picks up where the Morse Theatre left off
June 27, 2010
Maybe the third time will be the charm.
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Coming soon to the Mayne
June 27, 2010
Below are upcoming shows at the Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse Ave. For details, go to maynestage.com or call 773-381-4554.
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Pharez Whitted back with big sound
June 25, 2010
It has been 14 years since Chicago trumpeter Pharez Whitted put out a recording as bandleader — practically an eternity in the music business.
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Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson nurtured generations of Chicago jazz
June 24, 2010
It may be impossible to fully measure saxophonist Fred Anderson's impact on music in Chicago--and around the world.
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Harry Connick, Jr., finds joy in jazz classics at Chicago Theatre
June 23, 2010
No one in jazz idealizes the past as effectively as Harry Connick, Jr.
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Fred Anderson's illness puts Velvet Lounge in jeopardy
June 21, 2010
What happens to a revered jazz club when its visionary founder becomes seriously ill?
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A jazzy 75th for Ramsey Lewis – with a little help from Dave Brubeck and Nancy Wilson
June 20, 2010
The transcendent moment in Ramsey Lewis' 75th birthday celebration at the Ravinia Festival occurred early in Friday night's marathon concert.
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Great Chicago guitarist picks up the tempo
June 18, 2010
When several of Chicago's top guitarists converged on the Old Town School of Folk Music last year for a marathon concert, there wasn't a spare seat in the house.
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Guitarist Larry Coryell goes to the roots of jazz
June 18, 2010
He may be best known for the jazz-rock fusion of his early work, but guitarist Larry Coryell played mostly straight-ahead fare Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase.
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After illness, Ramsey Lewis finds 'a second life' – at 75
June 14, 2010
Though he'll be celebrating his 75th birthday at the Ravinia Festival this Friday Chicago pianist Ramsey Lewis says he feels reborn – and he has good reason.
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Pianist Denny Zeitlin plunges into the unfamiliar
June 13, 2010
Can a jazz pianist be forward-looking and nostalgic at the same time? Can his music sound warmly romantic and lushy Impressionistic and bracingly dissonant all at once?
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Dave Holland Quintet – a brilliant band soars
June 11, 2010
It's difficult to recall the last time a band received a standing ovation at the Jazz Showcase, a tough room that sets exalted standards for those who take its stage.
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Jazz fans, the doctor will see you now
June 11, 2010
He may be the hardest working man in psychiatry.
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Liza Minnelli at the Chicago Theatre: Unstoppable
June 7, 2010
Her voice quavers a bit, her newly replaced knee won't always cooperate and her artificial hips don't move quite like the originals.
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Riffing on the blues
June 6, 2010
The blues runs through American music like blood coursing through our veins. Without it, there's no jazz, no gospel, no rock 'n' roll — no soul.
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Who says you can't go home again? Judy Roberts did
June 4, 2010
How much have we missed Judy Roberts since she moved to Phoenix in 2007?
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Judy Roberts is back, Chicago
June 4, 2010
Nearly three years ago, one of Chicago's most beloved jazz musicians left town, after entertaining the city for decades.
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Filming 'DuSable to Obama' – with a jazz beat
June 1, 2010
The idea seems so obvious, it's a wonder no one thought of it until now: a feature-length documentary film telling the story of "DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis."
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Liza Minnelli: 'I'm a Broadway baby'
May 30, 2010
Nearly two decades later, it's still a performance that's impossible to forget: A sleek and glowing Liza Minnelli — garbed in a short, summery white tunic — singing like crazy and dancing as if immune to gravity.
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A rough night for Marcus Belgrave, Kirk Lightsey and friends
May 28, 2010
Perhaps as the weekend unfolds, the band that opened Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase will master the music it's performing.
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Chicago pianist celebrates Miles Davis
May 28, 2010
It's practically becoming a cultural rite in Chicago: the annual Memorial Day celebration of Miles Davis' birthday, led by the brilliant Chicago pianist Robert Irving III.
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Jon Faddis to leave the Chicago Jazz Ensemble
May 25, 2010
Trumpet virtuoso Jon Faddis, who has served as artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble since 2004, will leave that position when his contract expires in August.
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DuSable marks 75 years of creating legends, from Nat 'King' Cole to Von Freeman
May 24, 2010
Can a public school change the course of music history?
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Danilo Perez takes Dizzy Gillespie into the 21st Century
May 23, 2010
Few jazz artists of the 20th Century did more to globalize the music than Dizzy Gillespie. His collaboration with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo in the 1940s produced classic tunes such as "Tin Tin Deo" and "Manteca" – and launched a revolution in Afro-Cuban jazz.
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Jazz master Ira Sullivan teaches youngsters how to swing
May 21, 2010
How does the magnificent Ira Sullivan sound with a big band?
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Taking Dizzy's music to exotic places
May 21, 2010
In a way, it was almost inevitable that the Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez would organize "Things to Come: 21st Century Dizzy," an exploration of the music of Dizzy Gillespie playing Friday night at Symphony Center.
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Michael Jackson's legend to visit the ivory tower – in Chicago
May 17, 2010
The currents of black musical culture course through the song and dance of Michael Jackson.
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Jean-Michel Pilc thunders at the piano
May 16, 2010
An explosion went off at the Green Mill Jazz Club over the weekend, which is exactly what pianist Jean-Michel Pilc intended.
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Jean-Michel Pilc thunders at the piano
May 16, 2010
An explosion went off at the Green Mill Jazz Club over the weekend, which is exactly what pianist Jean-Michel Pilc intended.
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Jazz swings back onto TV in HBO's drama 'Treme'
May 16, 2010
At last, an antidote to Ken Burns' dismal, 2001 TV documentary, "Jazz."
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Brazilian rhythms meet Chicago jazz in Claudio Roditi's work
May 14, 2010
The music of Brazilian trumpeter Claudio Roditi addresses the audience gently, like a warm breeze wafting onto a white sandy beach. Yet Roditi's playing also bristles with ideas, has improvisations rich in content and harmonic sophistication.
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Colossal pianist Pilc storms Chicago
May 14, 2010
Among the great jazz pianists performing today, a few stand out for their colossal mastery of the instrument. Hyper-virtuosos such as Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Marcus Roberts set an exalted standard for everyone else.
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Review -- Pat Metheny's 'Orchestrion': Too much of a good thing
May 11, 2010
Whether you admire Pat Metheny's ultra-facile guitar playing or find it blandly tedious, the venture he brought to Symphony Center on Monday night demanded attention.
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SF and NYC institutionalize jazz – where's Chicago?
May 10, 2010
So should Chicago music lovers envy San Francisco?
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Review: The deepening art of MacArthur 'genius' Ken Vandermark
May 7, 2010
It takes a certain kind of bravery for a saxophonist to walk onstage joined only by a drummer.
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Mayne Stage (formerly Morse) to open in June with comedy fest
May 5, 2010
The Mayne Stage – formerly the Morse Theatre, at 1328 W. Morse Ave. – will open June 18 as a venue for the Just for Laughs comedy festival. The room will present "The Not Inappropriate Show," with Bob Odenkirk and Kate Micucci, June 18-19.
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A bold new direction for the Chicago Jazz Festival
May 4, 2010
The 32nd annual Chicago Jazz Festival will look, sound and feel unlike any of its predecessors.
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Review: ‘Intergalactic Beings’: Nicole Mitchell’s bold journey nearly succeeds
May 2, 2010
If artists are to be judged – in part – by the risks they're willing to take, then Chicago flutist-composer Nicole Mitchell ranks among the most significant figures in this city's musical life.
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Review: ‘Intergalactic Beings’: Nicole Mitchell’s bold journey nearly succeeds
May 2, 2010
If artists are to be judged – in part – by the risks they're willing to take, then Chicago flutist-composer Nicole Mitchell ranks among the most significant figures in this city's musical life.
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Trying to revive smooth jazz in Chicago
May 2, 2010
You could shoot a cannonball through this place and not hit anyone.
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Review: Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt makes his Jazz Showcase debut as bandleader in a hard-hitting show
April 30, 2010
With the exception of a single ballad, the music that trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's quintet played Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase was intended to jolt listeners. It did.
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Nicole Mitchell goes to distant places
April 30, 2010
When the innovative Chicago flutist Nicole Mitchell was a teenager, she became transfixed by the science fiction of Octavia Butler. The author's literary flights into strange and frightening worlds — in which aliens conquered and transformed humans — captured Mitchell's imagination and never let go.
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A bluesy farewell to a Chicago jazz master: Eddie Johnson
April 26, 2010
Chicagoans grieved when South Side saxophonist Eddie Johnson died earlier this month, at age 89. But the warm glow of his music – and the radiance of his personality – lit up the University of Chicago's International House, on East 59th Street, Sunday afternoon.
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Anat Cohen and James Farm present 2 sides of jazz improv
April 26, 2010
Jazz can be everything from buoyantly entertaining to rigorously intellectual, but rarely do both extremes unfold during a single program.
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Heath Brothers: Still regal in the art of bebop
April 24, 2010
Jazz always has nurtured its dynasties.
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Cohen clearing new path for clarinet
April 23, 2010
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World premiere movie at Symphony Center
April 20, 2010
The world premiere of a film featuring music by Wynton Marsalis, a special concert by Herbie Hancock and a rare performance by Cuban piano master Chucho Valdes will unfold at Symphony Center in coming months.
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CJE stages a brilliant recovery
April 19, 2010
So, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble got its groove back.
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Blujazz owners fought cancer and bureaucracy to start their club
April 18, 2010
And you thought you had stress.
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Maggie Brown turns up the volume
April 16, 2010
Chicago singer Maggie Brown has started picking up the tempo of her career again — a welcome development for anyone who appreciates the perpetually endangered art of jazz singing.
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A revelatory evening with pianist Fred Hersch
April 13, 2010
Pianist Fred Hersch has been through a lot.
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Davis honors Mandela anew
March 9, 2010
Two summers ago, the genre-defying Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis unveiled one of the most inspired works of his career: a symphonic celebration of Nelson Mandela's 90 years.
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Ron Hawking finally offers songs from his own heart
February 3, 2010
It has taken a very long time, but veteran Chicago singer Ron Hawking finally has found his own voice.
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A Chicago jazz wish list for 2010
January 5, 2010
In a perfect world, here's what would happen in Chicago jazz in 2010:
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Coming soon: A renamed, revived Morse Theatre
January 4, 2010
The refurbished Morse Theatre -- shuttered in March in a dispute between its operators and its principal owner -- will reopen in spring as the Mayne Stage.
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DownBeat magazine's 75-year history is one for the books
December 29, 2009
Seventy-five years ago, a new Chicago publication began chronicling a fast-growing music: the big bands.
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Letters: Honoring Marian Catholic's marching band
November 19, 2009
Readers from across the country responded to "Marching to Glory," a three-part series by Tribune critic Howard Reich on the Marian Catholic High School marching band and its journey to the Grand National Championships, led by band director Greg Bimm.
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Grand National championships: Victory defined
November 16, 2009
On the eve of war, leaders rouse their troops to vanquish the enemy, but not this time.
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Marching to glory with the Marian Catholic High School marching band
November 12, 2009
The kids in the Marian Catholic band look as if they're about to collapse.
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Michelle Obama subject of jazz ode
September 3, 2009
The Obama presidency may have sparked controversy in recent months, but the hope and promise it represents for many Americans were plain to hear Tuesday night at the Spertus Institute.
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Lincoln, Obama linked in two jazz celebrations
July 28, 2009
For Chicago jazz listeners, Presidents' Day arrives Thursday.
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Chicagoan Frank D'Rone plays prime time at the Showcase
July 25, 2009
We sometimes forget the cultural treasures in our midst.
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Telling Michelle Obama's story -- in language of jazz
July 14, 2009
Jazz tributes to Barack Obama have been pouring in since well before the Inauguration, but later this summer Chicago will hear something different: An evening-length work honoring First Lady Michelle Obama.
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