Gershwin master Kevin Cole reclaims the piano after surgery
Yes, he still can play the piano. And how. In March, Kevin Cole — today’s leading piano interpreter of music by George Gershwin and contemporaries — endured an eight-hour surgery...
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Jane Bunnett and Maqueque reinvent the sounds of Cuba
In 1982, when Canadian saxophonist-flutist Jane Bunnett made her first visit to Cuba, she was overwhelmed by what she heard and saw. “At that time, it seemed like a discovery,”...
Chicago Jazz Fest expands into clubs
The Chicago Jazz Festival will spread its wings, offering free performances in clubs, concert halls and unconventional spaces across the city from Aug. 24-29 (the festival proper will run Aug....
Pianist Kevin Cole stages a comeback after brain surgery
Kevin Cole seats himself at the piano, awaits the nod from singer Sylvia McNair and then begins accompanying her in “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” from the musical “Gypsy.” Which would...
Natasha Paremski soars in Rachmaninoff’s titanic concerto
Sergei Rachmaninoff called it a concerto “for elephants,” and he was not exaggerating. His Piano Concerto No. 3, in D minor, stands as a colossus in the repertoire not only...
Pianist Michael Weiss evokes memories of Johnny Griffin
Chances are that if you heard powerhouse tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin in the late 1980s and ’90s, you also encountered Michael Weiss at the piano. Keeping up with the volcanic...
Singer Maud Hixson makes a stand in Chicago — finally
The great revelation of last year’s Chicago Cabaret Convention came from Minnesota-based singer Maud Hixson, who during the course of just two songs showed surprising expressive range and interpretive insight....
Remembering the genius of William Russo
Less than a week before he died — in 2003 at age 74 — Chicago composer William Russo led his band at the Jazz Showcase while pulling oxygen from a...
Chicago Jazz Philharmonic delivers urgent message with ‘Chicago Immigrant Stories’
Before Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic launched his “Chicago Immigrant Stories” Thursday night at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, the city’s cultural commissioner offered a few poignant words. Chicagoan...
Petra van Nuis celebrates the art of swing
The Great Depression of the late 1920s and ’30s ruined lives and spread gloom around the world, yet somehow sublime music emerged during that time from the imaginations of Louis...