Unlike some of his more celebrated contemporaries who died decades ago as young beboppers who drank or snorted their lives away, Von Freeman is still performing in his eighties and not only still has something to say with his music, he is saying it more meaningfully as an octogenarian than he ever did as a younger—though admittedly, more flexible—player. In recent years Vonski has been recording like crazy, and the players who have been featured on these Premonition Records releases, including legendary Miles Davis drummer Jimmy Cobb, pianist Richard Wyans and bassist Jon Weber, will join him—Cobb himself having just released his first album as leader on the Marsalis Music label. The “lions” on the program is an opening group led by hot young Chicago trumpeter Corey Wilkes Young. (Dennis Polkow)
August 3 at Pritzker Pavilion, Michigan Ave. between Randolph and Monroe, (312)742-1168. 6:30pm. Free.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
