Corinne Bailey Rae, “Black Rainbows Project”
Album Release, September 15
Live Performance, Rockefeller Chapel, September 14
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter releases her years-in-the-works “Black Rainbows Project,” inspired by the objects and artworks amassed by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank. The project includes a new album, a coffee-table book by photographer Koto Bolofo called “Reflections/Refractions at the Stony Island Arts Bank” and a live-performance tour. Her website describes in detail the life-changing impact visiting the Arts Bank had on her.
Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter, “SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree”
Album Release, September 15
Live Performance, Evanston Space, October 11
Chicago’s one-of-a-kind and multi-Grammy-winning vocalist and guitarist-producer Charlie Hunter enjoyed their first “SuperBlue” record so much that they’re doing it again, with a new album and tour. The early singles include a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” the original “Not Here/Not Now” and “Only the Lonely Woman,” a vocal reimagining of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman.” This second SuperBlue outing reunites Elling and Hunter with drummer Corey Fonville and multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison (both of jazz-funk fusion quintet Butcher Brown).
Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, “Cousin”
Album Release, September 29
Book Release, November 7
Book Tour, Athenaeum Theatre, November 5
The autumn of ambition: Wilco releases and tours their thirteenth studio album, “Cousin,” while frontman Jeff Tweedy releases and tours his third book, “World Within A Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music.” Produced by Welsh musician Cate Le Bon, “Cousin” marks the band’s first album using an outside producer since 2007’s “Sky Blue Sky.” According to the press release, “Le Bon’s influences—among them the inclusion of saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars, and a cinematic, New Wave-style drum machine—drive the album into the future.” But we’ll have to take their word for it, as they’ve only released the catchy downer of a single, “Evicted,” so far. The tour has not yet announced a hometown date.
