I was in Evanston tonight at the nice SPACE venue for Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, which is a bit of a Chicago institution. “Chicago institution” is hereby defined as a group that plays so often that the music editors at Time Out Chicago raise an eyebrow when the group is not in the proofs of [...]
“What are you hoping to hear?” “…Anything from 69 Love Songs would be great, I guess.” “That’s tied up with an old relationship for me.” “Yeah. I think we all have a little bit of that.” First set 1. Kiss Me like You Mean It – 69 Love Songs, vol. 2 2. You Must Be [...]
The first Chicago appearances of both Corey Dargel and John Luther Adams fall in the next week, and I encourage everyone to get to both. Dargel has re-written what an art-song can be in our era, and beyond that dry description, his electronic art-songs are invariably touching and humane. Dargel is singing his one-year-old song [...]
I will admit to being biased, but I have to say that the commercial for next season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti is pretty awesome by every measure — production values, photography, musical excitement, et cetera, et cetera: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM2YJj6l03M There’s also this gem of a commercial, courtesy the Royal Opera House, for [...]
I quit pursuing a career as a trumpet-player in the summer of 2001. This was after a year in the trumpet Master’s program at Indiana University, and as I watched (or, rather, heard) people play circles around me and realized I had technical problems that should have been ironed out when I was 19, and [...]