After-hours jam sessions, pre-fest brunches, and even a moonlit cruise
Tag: Vol. 31 No. 48
Issue of Aug. 29 – Sep. 4, 2002
Posted inArts & Culture
2002 Chicago Jazz Festival
Every year around Jazz Fest we (and no doubt the festival programming committee) lament the shrinking pool of jazz giants: the kind of players who attract broad audiences due to their historical importance, experience, and technical mastery. This year alone the world has lost Shirley Scott, Big John Patton, Ray Brown, Wilber Morris, Russ Freeman, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Big and Beautiful
Can anyone save the old Mercantile Exchange Building from the endless tide of development?
Posted inArts & Culture
Mouse on Mars
The German post-techno duo of Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, better known as Mouse on Mars, have been on a roll for a couple years now. Though the woozy, slo-mo dub-plasma soundscapes of their 1994 debut, Vulvaland, and its 1995 follow-up, Iaora Tahiti, were undeniably enticing, both albums were a bit too diffuse and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Aida
Aida, Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Elton John and Tim Rice’s rock musical turns out to be more melodramatic than Verdi’s 1871 opera. (We won’t begin to compare the music.) Since these easy-listening pop ballads seldom relate to the story, it’s bewildering how automatically Nubian slave princess Aida falls for slumming […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Schlep That Launched Chicago
In 1673, the governor of New France (now known as Canada) sent the explorer Louis Jolliet to find out whether the Mississippi River offered a shortcut to the Pacific Ocean. Jolliet went to Mackinac Island, picked up a traveling companion–a priest named Jacques Marquette–and set off, via canoe, on the only route they knew: down […]
Posted inMusic
Return of a Continental Drifter/Postscript
Return of a Continental Drifter Even within the Chicago music scene, where a healthy work ethic is expected, reedist and composer Scott Rosenberg had a reputation as a busy, busy guy. He moved to Chicago in August 1999, and by early 2001 he was improvising with local and visiting artists, putting on concerts in a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, etc. concerts AEROSMITH, KID ROCK, RUN-D.M.C. Sun 9/1, 6 PM, Tweeter Center, I-80 and Harlem, Tinley Park. 708-614-1616 or 312-559-1212. AEROSOL GREY MACHINE Sun 9/8, 8 PM, Cornservatory, 4210 N. Lincoln. 312-409-6435. AMERICAN MUSIC DRIVEWAY TOUR Jay Mathes and other artists perform in local driveways and parking lots through mid-October. Fri 8/30, 7 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Awesome Show
The Awesome Show, Improv-Olympic. Presumably this snappy hour-long piece, starring Peter Gwinn and Meagan O’Brien and directed by Jim Carlson, was developed through improvisation–but apparently according to a paradigm of “No” rather than “Yes, and…” From opening moment to charmingly daft finish, this show is built on antagonism. Propelled by Gwinn’s precisely overplayed inferiority complex, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Standing on My Knees
Standing on My Knees, Janus Theatre, at Stage Left Theatre. The years have not been kind to John Olive’s play about a poet with schizophrenia, but flashy monologues and continued prurient interest in mental illness combine to keep it in circulation. Irresistible to overearnest young companies, it’s just the kind of work they should avoid. […]
Posted inFilm
Democracy Through the Looking Glass
Secret Ballot *** (A must-see) Directed and written by Babak Payami With Nassim Abdi, Cyrus Ab, Youssef Habashi, Farrokh Shojaii, and Gholbahar Janghali. Secret Ballot is…a demonstration of the fact that society at large has much more integrity than the forces that govern it. This is as true in Iran as it is in the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Find the Truth
Kudos to Michael Miner [Hot Type, August 23] for his thoughtful analysis of the flap generated by Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, too many of my coreligionists are prone to hyperbole in defense of Israel. The cry of “blood libel” is absurd, and cheapens the term for the future, when it may well be needed again. And […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jazz in Poland: Polish Posters From the Rosenberg Collection
Poster making in Poland has long been connected more to the fine arts than to commercial advertising, as this exhibit of 20 Polish jazz posters at the DePaul University Art Gallery demonstrates. Some combine the weightiness and precise line often found in Polish painting, but the most intriguing add chaos to express the open-ended unpredictability […]