Lil Wayne thrives, celebrating pleasures, excesses and freedoms
Forget the news about housing foreclosures and economic recession. The American Dream is alive and well in the form of the heavily tattooed,...
Get the full story >>Rare Piazzolla revival sounds better than it looks
By now, anyone even vaguely familiar with tango music must know the name of Astor Piazzolla. The Argentine composer and bandoneon master,...
Get the full story >>Kalmar, Grant Park Orchestra in ardent account of 'Seven Seals'
Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra have been successful at presenting pieces unlikely to be performed at a summer music festival....
Get the full story >>A love letter to Charlie Parker from saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr.
Most jazz clubs don't last as long — or even half as a long — as the Jazz Showcase has been celebrating the music of Charlie...
Get the full story >>Female rock group took time to group
Traci Trouble and Meg Thomas had been bumping around the Chicago scene for several years in separate bands when they finally saw each...
Get the full story >>Top rock shows
Steely Dan: Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and another of their typically excellent sets of collaborators return for two nights, playing...
Get the full story >>Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross: A guy who makes delightful dance music
This weekend, Dexter Tortoriello will make his live debut as Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross. It's easy to imagine Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross are...
Get the full story >>Stone Temple Pilots: Future is on the road
This spring, Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland released a ridiculously readable, warts-and-all memoir, "Not Dead & Not for...
Get the full story >>A rare revival of Astor Piazzolla's tango opera
The tango music of Astor Piazzolla sways to a seductive beat, its rhythms unhurried but relentless, its harmonies yearning for resolution.
Get the full story >>Conductor McGegan brings Handel's Orlando to Ravinia
Of the conductors who bestride the realms of modern and period orchestral performance, Nicholas McGegan may truly be said to command the...
Get the full story >>Taylor Swift's songs powerful on their own
Taylor Swift has perfected the art of feigning surprise. At a packed Allstate Arena Tuesday night, the first of two shows, she paused...
Get the full story >>Five-pianist concerto makes an enjoyable premiere at Ravinia
This is the week when the Ravinia incarnation of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets down with the worlds of pop and crossover.
Get the full story >>Savvy Brad Paisley rides line between pop, populism
If success in mainstream country music means finding the right mix of hokum and heart, man, has Brad Paisley got that formula down. "It ain'...
Get the full story >>Tweets, texts not for everyone in arts world
Like performing arts organizations everywhere else, the heavy hitters of classical music in Chicago are desperately seeking new ways to...
Get the full story >>Stormy weather
When a torrent of rain and gusts of wind ripped through the South Shore JazzFest late Sunday afternoon, it looked as if the event was...
Get the full story >>Lollapalooza Day 3: Rain, more rain, and a Foo Fighters finale
Lollapalooza 2011 is a wrap with record daily attendance (90,000), adding up to the most populated festival in North America (270,000)...
Get the full story >>Lollapalooza Day 3: Rain and mud can't keep Cool Kids, Damian Marley or fans down
Strong rains gave Lollapalooza a late-afternoon shower Sunday, turning Grant Park’s softball fields into muddy ponds and compelling...
Get the full story >>Lollapalooza: Early good vibes and expansion announced
The biggest Lollapalloza ever marked its 20th anniversary Friday in Grant Park with birthday cake, a record attendance of 90,...
Get the full story >>Lollapalooza Day 2: Going back in time
It’s unofficially ‘80s day at Lollapalooza Saturday, as if every band or artist is under strict orders to play an...
Get the full story >>Cemetery among bands drawn to Unbound light at Reversible Eye
It's been dark times for the Chicago underground these past few months — and the fans and folks behind Unbound couldn't be happier.
Get the full story >>Sade's secret weapon at United Center: restraint
Sade's "Soldier of Love," the British act's first album in over a decade, sold nearly half a million copies its first week, topping the...
Get the full story >>Bryn Terfel's artful song recital captivates at Ravinia
Bryn Terfel can command a stage whether he's thundering as Wotan, king of the Wagnerian gods, in "Die Walkure," or singing a lullaby from...
Get the full story >>Leading member of the Barrett Sisters gospel trio dies
She was the mightiest voice of the greatest female trio in gospel.
Get the full story >>He's the hottest young composer around. But catching Nico Muhly isn't easy.
Nico Muhly apologized for missing our phone interview. By an entire day, as it turned out.
Get the full story >>Paul plays 2 at Wrigley: How did they compare?
Paul McCartney just completed his two-night stand at Wrigley Field. How did the first night compare to the second? Let's check the...
Get the full story >>Kills are ready to bring the heat
The Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart started out at 14 singing in the Florida punk band Discount. After that band's dissolution, Mosshart...
Get the full story >>Gatekeeper's classic industrial sound
Gatekeeper may have bailed on Chicago for the hipster climes of Brooklyn last year, but the electronic dance music duo still has its...
Get the full story >>Alkaline Trio, Smoking Popes reflect on an alt era now gone
It was a bit ironic that Alkaline Trio and Smoking Popes' show at Metro on Monday was presented by the now non-existent Q101, a station that...
Get the full story >>Muti book a compelling saga of a rich life lived in music
As he approaches his 70th birthday on Thursday, Riccardo Muti is entering a phase of his international career in which consolidation is...
Get the full story >>Jill Scott: Full of fearlessness and passion
Brimming with fierce independence, soul singer Jill Scott came out firing Sunday at a packed Charter One Pavilion and didn't let up for 90...
Get the full story >>Torch songs: Singer Andrea Marcovicci embraces ballads of romantic pain
What is a torch song?
Get the full story >>Jill Scott is making music, starting conversations
Before she was a renowned R&B; singer, Jill Scott was working the boisterous poetry circuit in Philadelphia. So when she gave a spoken-...
Get the full story >>Winning hit TV show gives singer Javier Colon a 'Voice'
Javier Colon was almost the champion who never was. The first winner of NBC's hit series "The Voice" nearly backed out of the competition...
Get the full story >>South Shore JazzFest flexes its muscle
Two years ago, Chicago impresario-vocalist Geraldine de Haas believed her days of staging the annual South Shore JazzFest might be over.
Get the full story >>Brian Wilson turns mind to Gershwin
To make his "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" album, the former Beach Boys singer listened repeatedly to more than 100 of the late pop...
Get the full story >>Dolly Parton still a ray of sunshine
Dolly Parton began and ended her performance at the Rosemont Theatre Thursday night with "Light of a Clear Blue Morning," a 1977 hit...
Get the full story >>Bell, Grant Park Chorus soothe noisy Millennium Park with gentle Faure Requiem
Gabriel Faure's Requiem is not the first work that springs to mind when one thinks of choral music appropriate for performance at Millennium...
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