Chicago Stage Review

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Ravinia Festival

August 28, 2010

Review & Photo Essay by Venus Zarris

Have you ever been driving down the road, heard some new music and before you know it you look at the speedometer and realize that you are one radar gun away from a speeding ticket that you can’t afford? This is the effect that Rodrigo Y Gabriela have; the power to get your blood pumping and your mind racing through remarkable rhythms and intricately syncopated musical themes. There is complexity in their seemingly simple combination of two acoustic guitars. There is passion in the composition and fire in the lightning fast execution. It is music that instantly captures your interest and then holds you in its explosively fierce and seductively sensual energy.

On Saturday August 28, 2010, Rodrigo Y Gabriela performed their Ravinia début to the biggest crowd that I have ever seen at the venue. Staking out a small parcel of real estate on the Ravinia lawn was tantamount to staking out your claim during the California Gold Rush. Once the music started it became obvious why, as this was an audience that had struck it rich.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela create music that sounds amazing through a stereo but has to be experienced live to truly appreciate and believe. They are two people, igniting their two guitars with a fusion of musical genres that range from classical structure to tribal communion to heavy metal. The music is thrilling. It is transfixing. It is hypnotic, but most of all it rocks.

What also strikes you about the music is the unwavering craftsmanship and technical perfection. These two world-class musicians have been playing together since they were teenagers and their musical connection is beguilingly symbiotic. They are two completely extraordinary aspects of one creative organism. Their music is painstakingly calculated and yet it rides on a wave of spontaneously innovative energy. You are listening to profoundly gifted musicians that have blazed the trail for their own incarnation of music.

Although there is a strong resemblance to flamenco, Rodrigo Y Gabriela defy that classification. This music is something altogether its own creature that has been created by two people who have gone from playing the streets of Europe, busking in the freezing cold just to get by, to filling venues with enthusiastic crowds around the world. They are as serious about their music as a heart attack and as euphorically captivating about its execution as children discovering a brand new game. More than impassioned street performers, accomplished professional musicians or international sensations, they are a unique creative voice that reminds artists everywhere to stick to their guns; especially when that means boldly going where no one has gone before.

Without pomp or spectacle, two people with two guitars simply took the stage at Ravinia and created an enchantingly dazzling evening. Rodrigo Y Gabriela delivered an unforgettable performance of singularly astonishing music to an adoring and enormous crowd. Hopefully this triumphant début will ensure a return to Chicago sometime soon.

4 STARS

Check out Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s new album 11:11 and visit their website for tour dates and more information…

Rodrigo y Gabriela

By Lori Dana

For 10 years now, Maestro Carlos Kalmar and The Grant Park Symphony have been creating music that moves and amazes their audience, with one of the world’s greatest cities as a tonal backdrop.  Somehow the constant hum of humanity beyond the boundaries of Millennium Park’s pavilion and lawn makes the mastery of every performance come into sharper focus for us.  On Friday evening, Maestro Kalmar revisited a piece that, on an evening in 1999 at the old Petrillo Music Shell, was to become his “audition” for principal conductor of The Grant Park Music Festival.

This is Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2; composed by a man most praised during his lifetime for his work as a conductor, and whose compositions eventually opened the door for the great composers of the 20th Century.  Written between 1888 and 1894, Mahler’s second symphony still sounds incredibly fresh and modern today.  A study of the composer’s vision of death and the afterlife, the symphony begins as a tone poem in the style of a funeral march.  The overall feel of this opening movement is stormy, a mood reflected in the swirling sky over Grant Park on this balmy Friday evening. One of the joys of an open-air concert is how the music is often enhanced and reinforced by the natural surroundings.  Such was the case on Friday, as winds propelling yet another encroaching storm added to the mounting tension and swiftly changing moods of Mahler’s first movement; dramatic bursts of musical energy punctuating it like tiny lightning flashes.

A dance-like second movement is sweet relief after the turmoil of the first. The tip-toeing pizzicato of the string section builds anticipation and excitement as it weaves and embroiders Mahler’s original theme.  Kalmar, with his unmistakable mop of silver-tipped hair and impossibly crisp white jacket, engages in an expressive pantomime, locked in the embrace of his orchestra as we whirl around some long-ago Viennese ballroom. This is the composer looking back on happier times. (The balance of the second symphony was written after the death of conductor Hans Von Bulow.  Initially a harsh critic of Mahler’s composing, he eventually became the younger man’s mentor and close friend.) The subsequent three movements of Symphony No. 2 lead us from these sweet recollections through grief and loss and finally, to a renewal of purpose and embrace of resurrection.

In the third movement Mahler’s main theme seems to writhe in anguish. The shrill, distorted sounds of the orchestra evoke a life without purpose or meaning.  Suddenly, we find ourselves almost holding our breath as the inevitable chorus of cicadas fills the slightest pause.  And then, for the first time in the piece, the human voice is heard. The softest mezzo-soprano, gently opening one of the most beautiful songs Mahler ever wrote. An understated brass chorale expands to become the final movement’s “Resurrection” theme. And at last the monumental finale, again recalling themes from previous movements, but employing sounds and effects that until Mahler introduced them, had never before been heard in symphonic music. The use of off-stage musicians, huge percussion and a chorus singing in the softest dynamic ever written for voice all make Mahler’s composition unique and ground-breaking for its time.

All this made a performance of Mahler’s masterwork a most appropriate way to celebrate Carlos Kalmar’s tenth year of leading The Grant Park Symphony and helping to guide the direction of its highly regarded summer festival.

During our weeks of observing the maestro and his players in rehearsal, it became evident that every concert is a labor of love.  An ambitious performance such as this is a tremendous physical effort on the part of both musicians and conductor, especially in the heat and humidity of a Chicago summer.  There is a striking contrast between the pointed direction and drilling of the players by Kalmar in rehearsal, and his gentle coaxing, almost nurturing of his orchestra in performance; eliciting the most nuanced responses from his musicians and inspiring them to the perfection he knows they are capable of.

All of this is tempered with humor, tremendous enthusiasm and a passionate belief in the transformative power of music for both musicians and audience.

A musician in the GPMF orchestra told us that the experience has given them a new found appreciation for the hard work and dedication it takes to be a professional musician. “The skills and responsibilities are consuming. The 20 hours of rehearsing and performing required of each program are at least matched by as many hours per week in preparation, not to mention the years of conditioning that went into the ability to do so. Perfection in every performance is the norm.”

Today, when orchestras everywhere are under fire, their salaries and benefits at risk of being slashed from the budgets of public and private institutions as a “ luxury item”; Chicago audiences must acknowledge our extraordinary good fortune in being the home of one of the most artistically ambitious and successful classical music festivals in the Unites States today.

As the final Friday performance of 2010 concluded with Mahler’s massive orchestral and choral affirmation thundering in our ears, we realized that the benefits of ten years of innovation, musical and cultural diversity and artistic revelation are truly beyond measure.  Thank you, Grant Park.  Thank you, Musicians. Thank you, Maestro.

4 STARS

Grant Park Music Festival
Mahler Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”
Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park
August 20 & 21, 2010

CLOSING NIGHT - DO NOT MISS!

*Tonight’s performance is the last of the Grant park Music Festival season. It begins at 7:30pm in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Admission is FREE.*

Click here for additional Grant Park Music Festival 2010 information …

Classical Concerts in Millennium Park | The Grant Park Music Festival

Grant Park Symphony rehearsal images by Lori Dana.

Kiri Te Kanawa, Soprano
Brian Zeger, Piano

Ravinia Festival
Martin Theatre
August 18, 2010

By Lori Dana

Despite its elegant Art Nouveau decoration, Ravinia’s Martin Theatre has an air of summer camp about it.  Whether it’s the casually dressed crowd milling beneath its beamed and stenciled ceiling or the sounds of the wooded grounds pouring in through open windows; the attendees at Wednesday evening’s recital had the same air of giddy anticipation as campers clamoring to see their favorite counselor perform in the annual talent show.

And they were not to be disappointed!  Fresh from a Ravinia master class the previous afternoon, the legendary diva Kiri Te Kanawa swept onto the Martin stage like the opera royalty she is. Still a striking beauty; in black and white gown, floor length white satin opera coat and dripping in jewels, she was every inch the star.  Her accompanist for the evening was the very talented Brian Zeger, director of the program for singers at Ravinia’s Steans Institute.

Considered by some to be one of the great sopranos of the late 20th century, New Zealand-born Te Kanawa began her career as an “American Idol” style pop star in her native country.  Trained as an opera singer, she eventually studied in London where she made her debut with the Royal Opera in 1971. After more than 30 years as an international star, Ms. Te Kanawa’s voice remains sublime.  Only occasionally diminished in the very upper registers, the additional depth and luster that her experience brings to bear on such a remarkable natural instrument more than compensates for such small distractions.

The first half of Wednesday’s Ravinia program focused on the works of operatic composers, opening with Scarlatti’s “Caldo Sangue” followed by Vivaldi (“Io son quel gelsomino”), Handel (”Se pietá di me non senti”) and three songs by Franz Liszt.  However, the highlights by far were the four closing songs by Richard Strauss, a composer Kiri Te Kanawa was known to favor throughout her opera career and whose works were most perfectly suited to her vocal range and singing style.  In particular, the achingly romantic “Morgen” held the audience in thrall.  With crickets singing outside the theatre windows, it was not hard to imagine ourselves by the shore at dawn; completely swept away by Te Kanawa’s tender lyricism.

The tone of the evening then took a distinct turn after the brief intermission as Dame Kiri returned, a sinuous silver gown beneath the white satin lending an air of the chanteuse to her stage presence.  Moving into a 20th century repertoire, she nimbly executed a suite of songs by Frenchman Marie-Joseph Cantaloube, followed by Sergei Rachmaninoff’s lyric-less “Vocalise”, which has become something of a signature piece for her in recital.

But then…the diva speaks!  Well in truth, “the diva” was nowhere in evidence.  This was just Kiri, effusive about her Ravinia experience; warmly thanking her hosts (she had been provided accommodation in a private home) and greeting the lawn sitters outside the theatre, with whom she commiserated about the ferocity of the Ravinia mosquitoes. Seems that even divas aren’t immune!  Ms. Te Kanawa revealed that during one of her earlier numbers (inside the theatre) she had suffered a nasty bite on her earlobe. All this was delivered with wit, warmth and humor; setting the stage for the saucy “South American songs” of Argentinians Carlos Gustavino and Alberto Ginastera.

Five ovations and two encores later, Kiri Te Kanawa gifted her audience with one final gem, Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”. It’s an aria she sang innumerable times as a rapidly rising opera star. Now, experience adds deeper understanding and emotion to her incredible natural gifts.  For a diva and her audience, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

4 STARS

Supporting New Zealand Singers and Musicians » Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation

Ravinia Festival

Kiri Te Kanawa photos by John Swannell.

By Lori Dana

On Friday the 13th, classical music lovers braved an unusually sultry August evening to hear a rare Grant Park Music Festival performance of Dvorák’s glorious Requiem. This is the popular Czech composer’s supreme opus, a musical narrative based on the classic Catholic mass for the dead; performed by a full orchestra and sung in Latin by four soloists and a chorus of over 100 voices.

Maestro Carlos Kalmar, with typical zest, led his musicians and his audience on a journey through the 13 sections of this expansive piece; from the solemn march toward wrath and judgement, through the sweet supplications of the soloist’s earthly voices, to the joy of salvation expressed by the heavenly choral interludes. The irony of urban skies that just hours before were dominated by the roar of military death machines, now filled with Dvorák’s majestic prayer for the redemption of the human soul, was not lost on your humble reviewer. As an audience we could not help but be moved to the same contemplation of life’s mysteries that the 50-year-old composer himself must have experienced as he was creating this masterpiece.

Requiem is one of the relatively unknown treasures of the 19th century choral repertoire. It is commonly referred to by music scholars as a symphonic work that demonstrates Dvorák’s sense of balance as a composer with its restraint and feeling of awe, never succumbing to overly dramatic devices and always demonstrating the composer’s compassion and sensitivity.  This was certainly reflected in the nuances of the Grant Park performance, from the fine soloists (Layla Claire, Soprano; Alexandra Petersamer, Mezzo Soprano; Brendan Tuohy, Tenor and Kyle Ketelsen, Bass) to the majestic choral performance, all supported by the incredible playing of the Grant Park Symphony, which skillfully and dramatically wove Dvorák’s distinctive four-note theme throughout the piece, drawing it together into a satifying whole under Maestro Kalmar’s impassioned direction.

As the evening drew to a close, we sat under Gehry’s rolling waves of steel, as heat lightning from an oncoming storm added natural drama to Requiem’s magnificent finale. We were reminded in that moment, and in the 90 minutes of musical virtuosity that preceded it; how the inspired performance of a brilliantly conceived musical work can transport us far beyond the day-to-day vagaries of the human condition and into the realm of the Divine.

4 STARS

Only 3 concerts remain in the Grant Park Music Festival Season. This is an experience NOT TO BE MISSED! Admission is FREE.

Click here for the Grant Park Music Festival 2010 line-up and additional information …

Classical Concerts in Millennium Park | The Grant Park Music Festival

Jay Pritzker Pavilion images by Venus Zarris.

Review & Photo Essay by Venus Zarris

For close to ten years I was in a wonderful relationship with a Beatles devotee. Long stretches of time would go by where Beatles music was all that we listened to. Even when other music was in the mix, the Beatles were always a heavy part of the rotation. This was fine by me as Beatles music is terrific. As a result of my “decade with the Fab Four”, I consider myself an inadvertent aficionado of their music. Even though my Bealtes consumption has dwindled off considerably, I can still tell you which albums most songs come from and would be a good “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” lifeline call if you were stuck with a Beatles trivia question.

All that to say, the Beatles’ music was the soundtrack to a good chunk of my life. There have been and will always be Beatles cover-bands. When I heard that a group called BEATLEGRAS was covering the Beatles music with a bluegrass approach, I was more than a little intrigued.

On July 31, 2010, BEATLEGRAS made their exclusive Chicago land debut at the charming Wilmette Theatre, a terrific venue for unique live events as well as movies. George Anderson (Bass/Vocal), Milo Deering (Mandolin/Fiddle/Vocal) and Dave Walser (Guitar/Vocal) took the stage and after a brief bit of charming banter they began to play. The crowd was there for reminiscing, delightfully receiving the Beatles songs as if they were dear old friends. This is the initial draw.

Pop classics quickly turned to into tightly delivered hoedowns. The crowd didn’t mind, as the playful transitions plugged the standards into a fresh musical energy source. It was well-executed and good fun. Then something extraordinary happened.

A resplendently complex jazz-metered intro began, lifting us up and out of this trip-down-memory-lane-with-an-Appalachian-slant. This was no longer a familiar oldie with a hook, but rather this was an inspired arrangement that transcended the already remarkable Lennon/McCartney composition. Ethereal violin movements floated over the splendidly syncopated improvisational bass line. This was not a simple combination of musical genres. George Anderson’s arrangement of Norwegian Wood re-imagined the atmospheric standard into a completely new incarnation.

BEATLEGRAS is no one-trick-pony, but rather a collective of three tremendous musicians. In tuned with each other, their song choices and their musical deviations; they deliver innovation as well as homage. At their best, the music of the Beatles becomes the playground for these children from other musical times and other musical locations. They reinvent the swings and slides of this playground, bringing their own games to the park with brilliant bluegrass and exceptional jazz.

Hints of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, echoes of Windham Hill artists and a touch of Leo Kottke can be heard but BEATLEGRAS its own unique musical creature.

A valid argument can be made that this is too much gimmick and the band needs to make up its mind. There is enough blatant audience pandering to make this observation stick, especially when they launch in the mercifully brief (albeit joyfully received by the audience) oldies medley of James Brown’s “I Feel Good”, Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” and the Monkey’s “I’m A Believer.” This was the band’s most obvious “K-TEL moment.”

This also illustrated the only sad aspect of BEATLEGRAS. That is; while working so hard to please the crowd with familiarity, the band sells its incredible musicality short. These are quite simply too good of musicians to resort to jukebox sing-a-longs. While the jazz and bluegrass they create are fantastic, the Beatles songs don’t always organically fit. Rather, they sound at times like an unnecessary justification. The few original songs that BEATLEGRAS share are wonderful. More of their own composition and more of the dazzling bluegrass/jazz fusion would make for a night of true musical genius. It is hinted at, often times even achieved.

BEATLEGRAS puts on an undeniably entertaining performance. The potential is there for a consistently beguiling show. These are extremely gifted and likable artists that need to trust themselves and their talent, pander less and play more. For the moments of true greatness though, and there are several, a chance to hear BEATLEGRAS should not be missed.

3 ½ STARS

beatlegras - Home

BEATLEGRAS concert images by Venus Zarris.

By Lori Dana

Imagine if you will the perfect Chicago summer evening.  Beneath a cloudless sky a gentle breeze blows over Michigan Avenue. Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion shimmers in the twilight, nestled in the velvety green of Millennium Park’s Great Lawn.  This was the backdrop for Saturday evening’s Grant Park Music Festival concert, where the occasional wail of siren and hum of helicopter blended with the natural percussion of late summer cicadas to provide a distinctly urban accompaniment to the music of our superb Grant Park Symphony.

In contrast to the Ravinia Festival, its tony neighbor to the north; where the entitled elbow each other for a postage-stamp sized patch of lawn on which to spread their catered picnics; the Grant Park Music Festival is a more egalitarian affair with an attitude that is both laid back and welcoming.  Even the symphony players are in their shirtsleeves.  But unlike Ravinia, which has all but forsaken the Chicago Symphony that was once its centerpiece in favor of revenue generating pop fare, Grant Park is serious about its classical repertoire.

That’s serious as in actively promoting the art form, not serious as in playing the same well-worn chestnuts year after year.  Saturday’s program was an outstanding example of the Grant Park Music Festival’s imaginative and inclusive programming.  Entitled “From Huapango to Danzón: Mexican Classical Music”, it was quite an eye-opener for those of us who thought that Mexican music began and ended with the mariachi band.

Conducted by Enrique Barrios, a rising international star who is currently the Music Director and conductor of the Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Aguascalientes Opera of Mexico, the concert featured the works of Mexico’s most acclaimed composers. From the father of Mexican classical music, Carlos Chavez and his students José Pablo Moncayo and Blas Galindo came pieces from the 1930’s and 40’s, rooted in native Mexican dances, Indian rhythms and yes, mariachi music!

Then, the mood took a more ominous and dramatic turn with a 1962 piece (Homage to Copeland) by Humberto Hernandez-Medrano and another by Chavez contemporary Silvestre Revueltas (an homage to his friend, murdered Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca).

The final two compositions that rounded out the evening were written by modern composers who were trained and are living today in the United States; the exuberant Encuentros by Samuel Zyman and Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Marquéz, whose sensuous tango rhythms brought the program full circle.  All were performed with passionate excellence by The Grant Park Symphony and conducted with verve by Barrios, who broke occasionally to grace the audience with charming commentary on the music we were hearing; lending insight by putting it in cultural and historical context.

Hundreds of us exited the park that evening with our spirits uplifted and our minds opened by two hours of inspired music.  There is one more month left in the Grant Park Music Festival 2010 season. Admission is FREE - Don’t miss it!

4 STARS

Click here for the Grant Park Music Festival 2010 line-up and additional information …

Classical Concerts in Millennium Park | The Grant Park Music Festival

Jay Pritzker Pavilion images by Venus Zarris.

Love Baby, That’s Where It’s At!

Review and Photo Essay by Venus Zarris

For over three decades, The B-52s have captured a singular identity in pop culture by musically capturing and combining a diverse range of styles, sounds, genres, moods and atmospheres. For many, their first exposure to The B-52s was the song Rock Lobster. It was a song that stopped you in your tracks. You didn’t know what it was at first as you had never heard anything like it. You might easily have thought that it was a novelty song, destined to become a one-hit-wonder. Whether you liked it or not, it was as impossible to imagine a follow up to Rock Lobster as it was impossible to imagine its existence in the first place.

Who could possibly create a song about a lobster at a beach party that combined the surfing sounds of Dick Dale, the cowbell, punk rock, the theme song stylings of 1960s TV shows like Batman, a cheerleader convention on crystal meth, Yoko Ono’s caterwauling, and a lead singer shouting a bizarre conversational narrative about matching towels?

The B-52s could, that’s who and follow it up they did with hit after insanely playful hit. They went from musical oddity to musical royalty. The B-52s remain the reigning Kings and Queens of Pop-Punk-Camp, a brilliantly unique combination that has been often imitated but NEVER duplicated.

Still, over thirty years is a long time to be doing anything. For many popular bands, the joy of seeing them again comes more from nostalgia than from the band’s enthusiasm. It is easy to simply “phone in” a show when you know that the audience loves the music. Even if you are a little off, they’ll be so busy singing along and basking in the memories they have associated with the music that they won’t notice or care.

But The B-52s don’t put on a nostalgia show and they most certainly do not “phone it in.” This is not a musical museum of pop tunes from days gone by, but rather music that is vitally and delightfully in the moment. They don’t recycle their music, they renew it.

The B-52s sound better today than when they first took the stage. Their music, from new songs to classic crazy standards, are delivered with ferociously fresh energy and musical chops that are nothing less than marvelous. Their voices are perfection, hitting every note with sledgehammers. Kate Pierson still sounds like a 13-year-old. Fred Schneider is still the master of ceremonies to mischief and madness, exploding with playful righteous indignation. Cindy Wilson is still the darling girl-next-door gone Go-Go-riffic. Keith Strickland is still an innovative musical master. Their energy, presence and playfulness are intoxicating. They put on a show that will make even the most devoted fan fall in love with them all over again, as if it is the first time you discovered their magical musical mayhem.

Don’t let their badass t-shirt design fool you; The B-52s have discovered the fountain of youth. All other bands should beware, as The B-52s have more going on than kids half their age, but when you’re playing music that is driven by pure cosmic bliss it is impossible to age. Even though a song might remind you of college or high school, there is nothing dated about their music because sheer joy is timeless.

Their harmonies are tight and tantalizing, like hot rod engines purring while racing down the highway on the way to a Love Shack. Song after song, they deliver the anthems of a carefree America, driven and determined to love and laugh!

The B-52s have always been and are still today a band that creates most emphatically MUST SEE shows. On July 21, 2010, they blew the delighted crowd at Ravina in Highland Park, Illinois away! They take punk rock, world music, cartoon theme songs, 1960s space age bachelor pad ambiance, nonsensically delightful exposition, silly syncopation and sensational stage presence, mix it all up in a fondue pot of fabulous and then mainline this musical ecstasy to their audience with genuine genius and a whole lotta love.

Love Baby, That’s Where It’s At!

4 STARS

*** If The B-52s are playing anywhere near you, DON’T MISS them! ***

For Tour Dates and More Info check out the official website here! …

The B-52S - Official Site

The B-52s concert images by Venus Zarris.

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.

Review & Photo Essay By Venus Zarris

The biggest reaction that I received over the past week when mentioning that I was going to see Rickie Lee Jones in concert at Lincoln Hall was, “I love her!” The second biggest reaction was, “Really? I didn’t hear anything about it!”

In 1979, shortly after the release of her debut album, Rickie Lee Jones appeared on Saturday Night Live. Within a few months she was selling out shows at Carnegie Hall. Grant it that was over thirty years ago, but Jones has remained a consummate artist and one of the most singular live performers to emerge from American popular music.

After three decades a musician might get stale, lazy or comfortable. Jones is none of those things, always reinventing herself by infusing fresh approaches to songwriting while maintaining her uniquely distinctive artistic voice.

I’m not really sure why this tour date of the beloved Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter/musician was so underpublicized. Although she has a large fan base in Chicago, the lovely venue of Lincoln Hall was not full but the devoted pilgrims who tracked this buried treasure of a hidden concert down were well rewarded for their diligence and overwhelmed by Jones’ genuine presence and incomparable performance.

This was not an evening of getting through the play list. Rather, the evening itself was an improvisation. Starting on the drums and then moving back and forth from guitars, keyboards and back to drums, Jones delivered the casual spontaneity of a seasoned jazz artist. From new compositions to classic standards to unique covers, each song was an idea, rather than an obligation. Each song came with the thrill of being created in the moment, rather than the redundancy of a preconceived calculation. The evening was far more invention than it was presentation.

The evening was also intimate. The audience came to see an old friend, someone who had been with them through good times and bad times and perhaps even more significantly through the minutiae. Countless cumulative hours of listening to Jones’ music were evident. For many, Jones had penned the soundtrack to much of their lives. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to step in front of so many people who have created profound relationships with your music and in so doing feel as if they know you exclusively and likewise, for the emotional investment that they have in your work feel that you should somehow know them.

Some artists handle this with the detachment of a contrived persona or a manufactured performance. Jones handles it with breathtaking grace and impressive patience. At the end of a soul stirring incarnation of her standard We Belong Together she paused. The audience was overwhelmed and one fan sweetly yelled, “I love you Rickie!”

Jones smiled without lifting her head. Another audience member yelled, “Me too!” This opened a single-file floodgate of declarations of affection. “I’ve loved you for twenty years!” “I’ve loved you for thirty years!” “I’ve loved you since college!”

Jones finally looked up at the strangers with a big smile and a slight inkling of bewilderment. I said to her, “Listen, it is obvious that for most of these people, you’re probably their longest lasting relationship.” She laughed and softly said, “Yeah, me too.”

Anecdotes and adoration aside, there was the music. Aided only by the brilliant bassist Joey Maramba and the inspired percussion, piano and guitar work of Lionel Cole, Jones swept the audience away with atmospheric musical magic. Of all of the extraordinary tools that Jones has at her personal disposal, it is not as much the haunting songwriting or the intricate musicianship that she employs to tell her emotionally compelling musical stories, but rather it is that one-of-a-kind voice.

She can effortlessly move from child to vixen, from boogie to torch, from fool to sage and from joy to defeat with a simple change of inflection or a dramatic change in tone. Her career spans over three decades but the quality and strength of her voice is as powerfully evocative, as beguilingly melancholy and liltingly lovely as ever.

No future concert dates are currently listed on Rickie Lee Jones’ official website, making this either the end of the tour or the end of this leg of it. There was a suggestion of fatigue. February was spent touring the U.S. and March was filled with European concert dates. She told a story of her guitar being stolen in Brussels and another of loosing her passport in France. But Chicago was far from robbed by closing the tour. What we got was the soup, simmered and seasoned to sublime perfection.

I saw her over twenty years ago at the very beginning of her Flying Cowboys tour. Over the years I have seen her midway through a stretch on the road. I can now bare witness that her talent is consistent from start to finish. Any opportunity to see Rickie Lee Jones perform live is an invitation to a rare and wonderful event, an unforgettable affair.

She is a much-deserved American music legend. She is even more an honestly authentic artist of the world. For years she has given herself to the world through her unparalleled musical creation and hypnotically unwavering performance but for a few hours on March 25, 2010, at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, she gave herself just to us.

4 STARS

For information on Rickie Lee Jones’ latest album Balm In Gilead, previous recordings, images, videos, future tours and all things Rickie visit her official website here:

The official Rickie Lee Jones Website

Rickie Lee Jones concert images by Venus Zarris.