The Bad Plus evolves with new pianist
At its best, the Bad Plus can achieve considerable rhythmic thrust, technical elan and substantive music-making. At other moments, the long-running trio can slip into the cliches that have made...
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Juli Wood launches her Big Bari Band
For the irrepressibly creative Chicago saxophonist Juli Wood, the only thing better than one big, rumbling baritone saxophone is, well, two of them. Which is why she has created her...
Eddie Shaw, who brought saxophone energy to the blues, dies at 80
When Chicago blues musician Eddie Shaw played his saxophone, the room seemed to quake. His immense, raspy, growling sound cut through the instrumentals surrounding him. His ornate solos packed vast...
Celebrating Ella Fitzgerald, Mister Kelly’s and a promising new doc
In August of 1958, singer Ella Fitzgerald recorded one of the most brilliant and least remembered albums of her career, before a live audience in Chicago. The place was Mister...
MONK’estra shows why Monk’s music thrives
Last year, the world celebrated the centennial of Thelonious Monk, whose music — at this late date — still sounds remarkably fresh and utterly original. One hesitates to make hard-and-fast...
Jason Marsalis illuminates music of the past at Andy’s
The listeners who crowded into Andy’s Jazz Club on Thursday evening may have gotten something more than they expected. For in addition to leading a quartet of musicians in leanly...
From Morrison to Monk, a weekend of tantalizing music
The five most promising concerts of this weekend: James Morrison. Last year at this time, the hyper-virtuosic Australian trumpeter and his Academy Jazz Orchestra shook up the Green Mill Jazz...
Saxophonist Melissa Aldana helps crack the glass ceiling
Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana made global news in 2013, at age 24, when she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win one of the...
A dramatic evening with singer Rene Marie
Technically speaking, singer Rene Marie’s performance Friday night at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center could be called a jazz set. More accurately, though, it amounted to an unlikely fusion...
Blind Spot: ‘The Wire’
Editor’s note: We asked Tribune writers to reflect on a piece of the larger cultural puzzle (a popular TV show, a movie, a book, etc.) they were missing — until...