I discover subjects for the Secret History of Chicago Music lots of different ways—I might see an unfamiliar artist mentioned in passing during an interview with somebody better known, or spot a name I don’t recognize in the credits of a well-loved local LP. Sometimes a musician simply contacts me directly, or a friend or […]
Tag: jazz
Posted inMusic
Chicago rapper Davis teams up with Detroit producer Foule Monk for an invigorating album
Davis the Dorchester Bully isn’t rapping too fast—you’re listening too slow. As the Chicagoan says on “Virginia,” a track from his new album with Detroit producer Foule Monk, “Life is as simple as it seems.” And so are his rhymes, even when he serves them up with moments of head-whipping banter. That collaborative album is […]
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Wine tasting, Nicole Mitchell book release, ZooLights
Still planning your tasting menu for Thanksgiving? Then you’ll want to check out Easy Does It (2354 N Milwaukee). From 6-9 PM, they’ll be providing samples of over 35 drinks and other treats to inspire your holiday tables. As explained on Instagram, you can expect “lots of wine, beer, cider, no & low, aperitivos, vermouths, […]
Posted inMusic
Saxophonist Clifford Jordan epitomized the Chicago tenor sound
When tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan died in 1993, he hadn’t lived in Chicago for nearly 40 years, but he was still beloved here. “Clifford’s personality was warm and sincere, just like his tone on the saxophone,” Chicago tenor titan Von Freeman told Howard Reich at the Tribune. “He was a beautiful person—he helped me and […]
Posted inAgenda, City Life
Performance art on film, 1919, and more
Steppenwolf for Young Adults brings its acclaimed production of 1919, J. Nicole Brooks’s stage adaptation of Eve L. Ewing’s poems about the “Red Summer” race riots and white supremacy in America, from their Halsted Street venue to a short tour this week with Chicago Park District’s “Night Out in the Parks” program, starting tonight at […]
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Mi Raza, Sarah Weddle, audio workshops, performance, and more
The film presenter South Side Projections (founded in 2011 to bring movies to locations across Chicago’s south side in order to spur conversation about complex social and political issues) travels to the Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library (1805 S. Loomis) this evening for a presentation of 1973’s Mi Raza: Portrait of a Family […]
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A brisket and an Italian beef merge, music, and more
Monday Night Foodball at Kedzie Inn (4100 N. Kedzie) tonight highlights the skills of chef Jake Schneider as he provides a menu from Schneider Provisions, his pop-up “old-world delicatessen, with a modern purpose.” Schneider will be putting together hot sandwich favorites—turkey on rye, corned beef and mustard, and more—using bread from North Shore Kosher Bakery, […]
Posted inConcert Preview
Guitarist Yonatan Gat and the Eastern Medicine Singers combine avant-garde jazz and rock with Native American music
UPDATE: As of Sunday 10/2/2022, the Medicine Singers and Yonatan Gat concert scheduled for the Empty Bottle has been canceled. Contact ticket point of purchase for refund information. The Eastern Medicine Singers are a traditional Algonquin drum and vocal group based in Rhode Island. They sing mostly in several Algonquian languages, some of which are […]
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Chicago House Music symposium, cheese workshop, music, and more
It’s day one of the Chicago House Music Festival and Conference, which runs through Sunday 9/18. Today’s the symposium portion of this free four-day event. At the Logan Center for the Arts (915 E. 60th), there will be a slate of panels focused on the history, culture, and business of house music: the House Music […]
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The Hyde Park Jazz Festival connects the south side to the wider world of jazz
Hard times will bring out anyone’s true colors, and the Hyde Park Jazz Festival certainly showed what it was made of when COVID-19 brought live music to a halt in 2020. Its organizers emulated the music that the festival supports, improvising ways to support local jazz. First, they arranged the Jazz Postcards series, small-scale outdoor […]
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Demdike Stare celebrate Jamie Hodge’s techno productions with an archival double LP
A teenage Jamie Hodge enchanted the international underground-dance community in 1993 with his debut 12-inch as Born Under a Rhyming Planet, Analog: Heaven. Techno figurehead Richie Hawtin released Hodge’s music on his Plus 8 label after the Chicago producer played him some original recordings—he dropped in on Hawtin in Ontario at the end of a […]
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Sound healing, Lawndale Arts Festival, Jane, and more music
Sound healing is both an art and a science, and that’s why many boundary-pushing electronic musicians have worked in the (maligned! misunderstood! incredible!) territory of “new age” music. Local audio artist and healer Mirza Shams (who DJs and performs as Naxö) knows this overlap well. That’s why they host sound healing sessions through the Chicago […]
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Back Alley Jazz renews a south-side tradition
In 2018, Back Alley Jazz, an offshoot of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, thrummed the heartstrings of nostalgic south-siders when it resuscitated the popular neighborhood-alley jams that took place in the community from the mid-1960s into the ’70s. Since then, this riff on tradition has become a tradition itself, turning unassuming corridors and street corners […]
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Salt Shed opening, Broadway in a park, Queer cinema, and bats
Join local musicians Makaya McCraven and Sons of Kemet for an outdoor show to celebrate the inaugural evening of the Salt Shed (1357 N. Elston), Chicago’s newest independent music venue, which occupies the site of the former Morton Salt complex. They’ll be joined on the lineup by British jazz musician Nubya Garcia. Tickets are $30, […]
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The Chicago Soul Jazz Collective refreshes the sounds of the city’s postbop era
Since 2018, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective has made waves in town by resurrecting the stylish grooves of the postbop era, which began in the late 1950s—nationally, the sound was shaped by the likes of the Jazz Crusaders, Cannonball Adderley, and Jimmy Smith, and in Chicago the Rush Street club scene was at its height. […]