Since Douglas McCombs’s long-running project Brokeback evolved from a solo endeavor into a quartet lineup seven years ago, he and his cohorts have engaged in an exquisitely patient act of retrenchment and refinement. The striking new Illinois River Valley Blues (Thrill Jockey) is the first record from the group in four years, during which Jim […]
Category: Concert Preview
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Durand Jones & the Indications are so much more than your typical soul-revival act
It wasn’t too long ago that the core members of midwestern revivalist act Durand Jones & the Indications met at Indiana University through gigs with the IU Soul Revue, the college’s tip-top throwback ensemble that performs black popular music from the 1960s. As the story often goes, front man Jones grew up in a church […]
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England’s Stile Antico are peerless purveyors of Renaissance polyphonic music
I won’t pretend to know much about Renaissance vocal music, but I will say that encountering Divine Theatre: Sacred Motets by Giaches de Wert (Harmonia Mundi), the new album by veteran British vocal ensemble Stile Antico, certainly has me challenging my ignorance. The recording features the group bringing its polyphonic precision to the sacred motets […]
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Both revered and condemned for his brazen humor, Bishop Bullwinkle is a meme-ready bluesman
Bishop Bullwinkle’s profanity-laced takedowns of roguish churchmen and their hypocritical flocks on “Hell 2 Da Naw Naw” and “Some Preachers [Ain’t Shit]” have made him a cult, meme-ready YouTube celebrity quite apart from the praise and condemnation he’s received from modern-day southern-soul aficionados. And his shows go even further: they’re basically an unexpurgated barrage of […]
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Young Chicago jazz trio Four Letter Words blend melancholia and turbulence
Last fall I wrote about the vitality of Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene after discovering the playing of pianist Matt Piet, who’s part of a new wave of players melding the rigor of free improvisation with the oblique rhythms and harmony of 60s postbop. That soon led me to other locals on the rise, […]
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Chicago rapper-producer Ibn Inglor has a sound built to fill a downtown theater
It takes a certain brazenness to attempt maximalist rap as an underdog, and Chicago rapper-producer Ibn Inglor has it in spades. Last year’s self-released Honegloria is painted from the same palette Kanye’s been using for his recent work: spartan synths play yawning melodies as big as canyons, horn samples sound like they’re calling gladiators to […]
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Devendra Banhart smooths out his eccentricities on his recent Ape in Pink Marble
For quite a few years I’ve been going against the grain when it comes to Devendra Banhart. As he’s curbed the quirky excesses that helped enamor press and fans alike—the overwrought falsetto, the nonstop hippie affectations, the self-indulgent lyrics emphasizing rejection of social mores—I’ve appreciated his work more. He hasn’t become normal, exactly, but the […]
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On the new Offers Ne-Hi edge away from their garage genesis toward pop majesty
On their second full-length, Offers (Grand Jury), Chicago sweethearts Ne-Hi take poppy indie rock and elevate it to new levels of grandeur. Formed in 2013 by four college friends at the now-defunct DIY space Animal Kingdom, Ne-Hi released their self-titled debut via Manic Static the next year, building a beautiful, fuzzy racket by smearing sweeping […]
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Montreal producer Tiga honors techno’s history while ignoring its status quo
Electronic producer and songwriter Tiga helped build Montreal’s techno scene, though he’s not one to confine his own music to that genre’s rigid pulse. On his third full-length, last year’s No Fantasy Required (Counter), Tiga delights in skin-crawling electroclash synths (“Bugatti”), sumptuous disco flair (“Tell Me a Secret”), and hiccupping acid (“Planet E”). He’s chameleonic […]
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On his gripping new solo album, progressive jazz drummer Jamire Williams flouts expectations
Drummer Jamire Williams spent time in New York in the aughts, working with high-level bandleaders like Robert Glasper and Herbie Hancock and pursuing an R&B-informed vision of jazz. These days he lives in Los Angeles, making music that routinely flouts expectations of what a jazz drummer should be. He was a key part of Jeff […]
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An all-star cast celebrates the legacy of radical choreographer Merce Cunningham
A couple of weeks ago “Merce Cunningham: Common Time,” a major exhibition devoted to the work and associates of the relentlessly experimental choreographer, opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show incorporates sets, costumes, video, and photographs along with other ephemera reflecting Cunningham’s deep connections with visual artists like Bruce Nauman, Jasper Johns, and […]
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Falsetto Philly soul singer Eddie Holman keeps on mending broken hearts
Now this is a random blast from the past. Eddie Holman is famed for “Hey There Lonely Girl,” a sweet, vulnerable Philly soul ballad that rocked AM radios during the winter of ’69. It wasn’t his only hit, but it overshadowed the others—visit his website and the opening bars are the first thing you hear. […]
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The partnership between guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge finds its legs
Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge are both virtuosic guitarists in their chosen milieus—jazz and bluegrass, respectively—but they’ve long demonstrated a broad curiosity about other styles. Their desire to collaborate felt natural enough, and on 2014’s Avalon (Modern Lore) each player gently crossed the proverbial aisle—some denatured jazz manouche here, some spry pop bluegrass there, with […]
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Willis Earl Beal returns to his hometown to show off his latest twists and turns
Indefinable musician Willis Earl Beal hasn’t made much of an appearance in his hometown of Chicago since January 2015, when he performed a synth-heavy set that coincided with the debut screening of the restless 2014 indie flick he starred in called Memphis. Since then Beal has dropped three releases through Tender Loving Empire, an arts […]
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On Special Night soul vet Lee Fields brings contemporary themes to his old-school sound
I don’t think veteran soul singer Lee Fields foresaw an increasingly divided and polarized United States when he recorded “Make the World,” a song from last fall’s terrific Special Night (Big Crown). Over a hard, almost martial groove inspired by vintage James Brown, Fields urges unity, deploying military cadences to suggest the potential destruction awaiting […]