Howard Reich –

CSO cancels concerts into June

January 14, 2021 at 11:07 a.m.

All Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association-presented concerts through June 13 have been canceled, the CSOA announced Thursday. "The decision follows a careful review of the continually evolving conditions related to the...

Ella Fitzgerald at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1981: Endless vocal imagination.

The ‘ultimate female jazz singer,’ Ella Fitzgerald, soars on ‘The Lost Berlin Tapes’

January 12, 2021 at 10:47 a.m.

Where would we be without Ella? Without that voice, that propulsive sense of swing, that fleet technique and that seemingly inexhaustible well of improvisational creativity? Ella Fitzgerald, who died in...

Elie Wiesel, author, Nobel Peace Prize winner and now winner of the 2012 baiduhai Literary Prize was interviewed by baiduhai writer Howard Reich at Symphony Center in Chicago Sunday Nov. 11, 2012.....B582503616Z.1 (Nancy Stone/baiduhai) ct ....OUTSIDE TRIBUNE CO.- NO MAGS, NO SALES, NO INTERNET, NO TV, CHICAGO OUT, NO DIGITAL MANIPULATION...

Farewell to readers: I’ve spent four-plus decades in the company of cultural giants

January 11, 2021 at 12:11 p.m.

Forty-three years ago, while still a music student at Northwestern University, I caught quite a break. I sent a paper that I'd written for a class to an editor at...

Mike Jones plays the piano and leads the Mike Jones Trio during a performance at The Green Mill on Friday, June 23, 2017 in Chicago.

Penn & Teller pianist Mike Jones creates his first solo album in 20 years: ‘All By Myself’

January 8, 2021 at 8:00 a.m.

It would be impossible to tally how many listeners have heard the remarkable jazz pianist Mike Jones, music director for the Penn & Teller show in Las Vegas. In more...

Jon Hendricks' centennial in 2021 will be one of many reasons to celebrate.

Something to celebrate in 2021: Jazz centennials from when the art form was young

January 6, 2021 at 10:34 a.m.

Yes, there's something to celebrate in 2021: this year's jazz centennials. Several jazz luminaries were born 100 years ago, when the art form was still in its youth. How soon...

Pianist Reginald Robinson: A progenitor of ideas, knowledge and performance in Black American music.

Column: 6 wishes for Chicago’s jazz and classical music in the New Year

December 28, 2020 at 1:36 p.m.

As the New Year begins, here's what I'm hoping for in music: 1. Riccardo Muti extension Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the traditional New Year's...

Linda Eder performs Christmas songs at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017.

Review: A joyous new album from singer Linda Eder

December 28, 2020 at 1:25 p.m.

What better to way close out 2020 and ring in 2021 than with a new Linda Eder album? Her voice – and her way of using it – long ago...

Chicagoan of the Year instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya at home in his studio Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, in Chicago. Ogbonnaya stands out in the Chicago music scene for, even during a pandemic, being unrelentingly prolific, with four releases from April to November of 2020. The topics range from psychedelic pop to social justice.

Chicago Opera Theater music director Lidiya Yankovskaya championed opera before and amid the pandemic

December 24, 2020 at 8:58 a.m.

Nothing in classical music is more complex than opera, its many facets including singers, instrumentalists, conductor, director, lighting and stage designers, costumers and more. In 2020, Chicago Opera Theater music...

Pianist Marcus Roberts performs George Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Chicago Philharmonic Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, at the Harris Theater in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/baiduhai)

‘United We Play’: Piano virtuoso Marcus Roberts in a bracing concert film

December 23, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.

Last March, the singular jazz pianist Marcus Roberts was rehearsing with the American Symphony Orchestra for a much-anticipated concert in Carnegie Hall. But Roberts and the orchestra never got to...

Tammy McCann spent the year nurturing jazz on the South Side

December 24, 2020 at 9:01 a.m.

Most anyone who follows Chicago jazz realizes that Tammy McCann commands a magnificent instrument and knows how to use it. But in 2020 she made additional impact as impresario, curating...

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