ESS’s Option music salon returns for spring with Jim O’Rourke, and Chicago rappers Saint Ripley and Osa North level up on new releases.
Tag: Option series
Posted inMusic
Finding ways to play through the pandemic
Chicago improvisers Tim Daisy and Matt Piet have responded to the challenges of COVID by learning new ways to record alone.
Posted inMusic
Chicago’s September jazz festivals cope with COVID
The city is replacing the Chicago Jazz Festival with a slimmed-down online event, while the smaller, nimbler Hyde Park Jazz Festival plans to try pop-up in-person shows.
Posted inMusic
Improvising trio Icepick renew jazz’s love affair with the El on their third LP, Hellraiser
Sun Ra may have told everyone he was from Saturn, but the Afrofuturistic avant-gardist spent the 1950s in Chicago. While he was here, he recorded “El Is a Sound of Joy,” jazz’s greatest tribute to the city’s public transport system. No one in improvising trio Icepick—bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and drummer Chris […]
Posted inMusic
Percussionist Claire Rousay makes her Chicago debut at Exposure Series 2019
In jazz, soloists step in front of the band to show their stuff and then retreat back into the ensemble’s framework. Percussionist Claire Rousay, based in San Antonio, Texas, doesn’t play jazz, but her improvisations are just as conscious of the relationship between self and surroundings. She is queer and transgender, and her music addresses […]
Posted inBlogs
Next week saxophonist Dave Rempis plays solo and leads a full-band performance of a South African jazz classic
On Monday, Dave Rempis plays an improvised solo concert; on Wednesday, he leads a band through the material on a great record by soulful South African bassist Johnny Dyani.
Posted inMusic
Rabid Rabbit alum Andrea Jablonski dusts off her bass for a duo at ESS
Rabid Rabbit alum Andrea Jablonski dusts off her bass for a duo at ESS, dance label Clear drops a 12-inch from new Chicagoan Steve Summers, and more.
Posted inBlogs
Multireedist Ned Rothenberg kicks off a new season of the Option series; pianist Misha Mengelberg dead at 81
The reedist plays two concerts in Chicago, and the Dutch pianist leaves behind a remarkable legacy