RECOMMENDED Swinging singer, songwriter, pianist and Chicago native Ann Hampton Callaway returns home for a holiday performance that will spotlight the original holiday arrangements recorded by two singers very associated with Callaway: Ella Fitzgerald, to whom Callaway devoted her 1996 album “To Ella with Love,” and Barbra Streisand, for whom Callaway penned the world-peace anthem “At the Same Time” and the lyrics for “I’ve Dreamed of You.” Callaway and an expanded incarnation of Jeff Lindberg’s Chicago Jazz Orchestra will perform the original big band swing arrangements of secular holiday classics as recorded by Ella Fitzgerald on her classic 1960 holiday album “Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas,” including “Jingle Bells,” Chicagoan Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” along with orchestral arrangements—including strings—of the sacred repertoire from the 1967 “Barbra Streisand: A Christmas Album.” (Dennis Polkow) Thursday, December 13 at Harris Theater
A Joyful Noise: Mars Williams’ Jazz Holiday Tradition Williams and his band present a mash-up of holiday melodies with avant-garde jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler’s squonky works, finding both commonality and tonality.
Soaring with Bird: Jazz Showcase Founder Joe Segal Passes Away “Everybody in the field of jazz,” said Segal, “whether a record producer, deejay or club owner, is really a frustrated musician… If I could play, I’d be up on the stage instead of at the door.”
