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A Dixie feast
A hot New Orleans breeze blew into Symphony Center over the weekend, inspiring more than a few Chicagoans to stand up and holler as if they were on Bourbon Street rather than Michigan Avenue. Keep reading »
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Jammin’ with the CSO
From the moment Daniel Barenboim stepped up to the podium, it was clear that musical conventions were about to be incinerated. Rather than pick up his baton and signal a downbeat for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as he does each week in Symphony Center, the maestro turned around, faced the audience and began to speak directly to the crowd. Keep reading »
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Sonic pleasures - Marsalis and Barenboim marshal their forces for outstanding Ellington tribute
There has been no shortage of Duke Ellington tributes this year, but few have marshaled quite so many resources - or used them as ingeniously - as the program in Symphony Center this week. Keep reading »
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Let Freedom Swing
From coast to coast, newspapers trumpeted the same remarkable tune: A jazz artist had won a prestigious award hitherto given only to classical musicians. “Marsalis swings a Pulitzer,” noted USA Today, evoking the jazz idiom with its choice of verb. Keep reading »
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Marsalis’ Gamble
With a cast of roughly two dozen musicians, a running time of nearly three hours and a forthcoming recording that will fill a three-CD boxed set, it is the single biggest project of Wynton Marsalis’ career to date. Keep reading »
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Marsalis, Roberts renew musical bonds in impromptu reunion
Two reigning jazz virtuosos were reunited in impromptu fashion Tuesday night, and the results were as profound as they were accessible, as technically brilliant as they were musically direct. Keep reading »
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A change of key - His Septet behind him, Marsalis takes a new direction
It was one of the most sublime jazz bands of the late ‘80s and early “90s, an ensemble so distinctive in personality, so lustrous in tone and so brilliant in technique as to set a standard toward which other young groups aspired. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Takes Jazz To Church
Years from now, they’ll still be talking about the concert that lit up a grand old church on the South Side of Chicago. They’ll reminisce about the jazz band that dared to offer a three-hour show from the pulpit of a 19th Century house of worship. They’ll recall how brilliantly the seven musicians played, how frequently the congregation sprang to its feet, how often it fell silent during passages of mystery and reverie. Keep reading »
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Masters of Improvisation Marsalis, Mulligan Kick off Festival
Trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis set the tone for the evening with a version of “The Star Spangled Banner” that was steeped in New Orleans parade tradition. Keep reading »
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Jazz at the White House
To judge by the historic television program to be broadcast Sunday, America’s recently rekindled love affair with its own music, jazz, is going strong. Keep reading »