Hannah Edgar

His Symphony Center appearance on Saturday — his 14th in 26 years — plotted the best path possible with a concert that acknowledged Hancock’s ubiquity while resisting a best-hits roadshow.

Led by guest conductor Susanna Mälkki, CSO principal flutist Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson debuted Lowell Liebermann’s second flute concerto.

Also the Violent Femmes will play their debut album with Chicago Philharmonic, and the CSO’s opening weekend is genuinely stellar.

“Spiritual jazz” has become an ever-squishier genre tag, but for the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, no other name fits.

In a sign of changing winds, Riccardo Muti is not kicking off the 2024-25 season. That honor goes to Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Friday night's concert paired bassist Ron Carter with the newly minted Blue Note Quintet promoting Blue Note Records’ 85th anniversary.

Monday’s Civic Orchestra concert wasn’t supposed to be a memorial. But earlier that morning, former principal conductor Cliff Colnot, 76, died after an illness in Chicago.