RECOMMENDED This grand finale to CUBE’s twentieth-anniversary season has jazz and classical musicians exploring the themes of high and low through instrumentation (flutes and bass clarinets) and female voices (soprano through alto) while also examining the common foundations of twentieth- and twenty-first-century jazz and new music. Debussy’s 1913 “Syrinx” will feature Janice Misurell-Mitchell, Caroline Pittman and Nicole Mitchell performing the groundbreaking solo flute piece as written and improvised while “Der Kranke Mond” (“The Sick Moon”) from Schoenberg’s 1912 “Pierrot lunaire” for voice and flute will be performed as written by soprano Barbara Ann Martin and flutist Caroline Pittman and then improvised upon by Joanie Pallatto and Nicole Mitchell. The legendary piece introduced the idea of “sprechstimme” or “talk-singing,” the foundation of later rap music. Venturing to the edges of jazz, the program also features music from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians with Nicole Mitchell, flutes, Ann Ward, voice and piano, Mwata Bowden and Edward Wilkerson, Jr., bass clarinets and didgeridoos, and CUBE’s Dane Richeson, percussion, along with the Chicago premiere of “Shevet Achim” (“Two Brothers”) for two bass clarinets by Meira Warshauer by J. Lawrie Bloom (Chicago Symphony) and Richard Nunemaker (Houston Symphony) and explores the often troubled relationship between the descendents of Abraham’s sons Isaac (the Jews) and Ishmael (the Muslims) and two world premieres: Jody Rockmaker’s “Bottom Dog” for two bass clarinets and contrabass clarinet and “Sisters Switching” based on a poem commissioned by CUBE from poet, novelist and composer Regina Harris Baiocchi, features “The Girl Group” Barbara Ann Martin, Joanie Pallatto, Ann Ward, voice; Janice Misurell-Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell, flute/voice and features a combination of jazz and classical voices, jazz and classical flute, spoken word and sung improvisations. Closing the concert is Janice Misurell-Mitchell’s “X-marks” for mixed ensemble, which employs both traditional and spatial notation. (Dennis Polkow) Sunday, May 11 at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall (7th floor), 430 S. Michigan, (773)536-4181. 8pm. $10-$20.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
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.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
