Chicago Stage Review

Bethany Pickens Trio - Cool Jazz on a Summer Day

By Venus Zarris

Experiencing someone’s artistic abstraction provides a window into an intimately personal aspect of their psyche, their emotional conscious and subconscious and their intellectual deviations. Perhaps no incarnation of this is more viscerally engaging than with jazz.

The brilliant Bethany Pickens Trio performed Friday, July 9, 2010 in the lovely outdoor courtyard of the Hyde Park Shopping Center. In so doing they transformed the common community gathering space into a living-breathing suspension of ethereal groove and transported the delighted listeners to places both delicate and dynamic. Such are the portholes that jazz creates and the Bethany Pickens Trio are beguiling conductors on the amazing rides of each musical journey they undertake.

Standards from masters such as Charlie Parker, Chick Corea and Thelonious Monk created splendid time traveling impressions but it was Pickens’ original compositions that delivered the most impressive and altered states. Her music bypasses the immediate perception of the moment and gently takes you away to thought-provoking atmospheres and attitudes. Her melodies are compelling. Her rhythms are hypnotic and her musical change-ups are viscerally seductive. Pickens’ music is perfect to share outside on a sunny day with the crowd, but you can just as easily imagine its impact on an intimate evening for two.

The remarkable dexterity of Joshua Ramos on the acoustic bass combined with the perfect syncopation of Verne Allison on the drums created a resplendent foundation for Pickens’ improvisational keyboard compositions. Finding yourself in the company of the world class musical mastery of the Bethany Pickens Trio results in a wonderful epiphany. That is, it is time to start listening to more jazz!

4 STARS

(*Bethany Pickens Trio will be performing next on August 5, 2010 at Millennium Park at 6:30pm.)

For more information, concert dates, to listen to her music and purchase a compact disc, go to …

BETHANY PICKENS - HOME OF WILLIE’S KID MUSIC

Bethany Pickens Trio images by Venus Zarris.

Jesus Christ Superstar

The first collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be performed on the professional stage, Jesus Christ Superstar illuminates the transcendent power of the human spirit with a passion that goes straight to the heart. The production features a stirring score including “Superstar”, “Everything’s Alright” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”. In Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus is portrayed as a prophet / rock star whose appeal stems as much from the crowd’s energy as from his own inspirational message. Jesus’ meteor-like rise in renown provides, as the title suggests, a parallel to contemporary celebrity worship. As his radical teachings are evermore embraced, Judas increasingly questions the enlightened motives of this new prophet, resulting in betrayal. In this production, Christ’s final days are dramatized with emotional intensity, thought-provoking edge and explosive theatricality.

Read the 4 STAR review here: Jesus Christ Superstar - REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

Thru - Aug 8, 2010

@ Theatre At The Center

1040 Ridge Rd, Munster, Indiana

Show Type: Musical

Box Office: 219-836-3255

Theater at the Center

After the Fall

Miller’s ambitious and personal 1964 masterpiece explores a new sense of non-linear theatricality in its powerful study of one man’s search for meaning through his memories and relationships. Images and scenes intertwine, illuminating his humanity and probing into the revealing, often painful events of his past.

Presented by Eclipse Theatre Company

Previews: Jul 8 - Jul 10, 2010

Regular Run: Jul 11 - Aug 22, 2010

@ The Greenhouse Theatre Center

2257 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 773-404-7336

After The Fall

Eclipse Theatre Company Chicago