Reviews, profiles and news about music in Chicago
The Quartet’s new concert season, called “The World Around Us,” is a kind of call to action, a ringing alarm to rouse us from our collective torpor. Luckily, they’re talking about the world both physical and metaphysical, not any given political landscape.
Wilcox’s latest album, “The View from the Edge,” reflect the laid-back vibe of Western North Carolina. Wilcox says that living in the mountains influences the kind of songs he writes. “Because there’s no music industry here,” he explains, “you’re there to play for the people, not the industry.”
When Fantastic Negrito emerged onto the music scene in 2015, he looked to all the world like a new, emerging artist. In fact the man born Xavier Dphrepaulezz—winner of that year’s Tiny Desk Contest for his song and video “Lost in a Crowd,” which showcase a sound that builds upon the blues, but didn’t conform to most people’s ideas about what blues should sound like—had been making music for quite a few years.
The band has become a critical darling with the release of its latest release, “Twin Fantasy (Face to Face),” a complete rerecording of an earlier cult-favorite album;
The tawny-tressed young firebrand is now a snowy-haired matron; her voice, while retaining its purity, has deepened and darkened, from sparkling silver to burnished gold, and there’s just a hint of gravel in its lower register. But in all other respects, Joan Baez has been an astonishingly consistent presence in American life for as long as many of us can remember; her music has been been a bulwark against corruption and violence, and a beacon of hope and encouragement.
Touring his final Childish Gambino album—and on the wave of his viral music video “This Is America,” a commentary on race and gun politics—Donald Glover leads the wave of must-see acts in Chicago this month.
This fall don’t miss these upcoming shows.
These days the group functions more as a legacy/nostalgia act than a creative going concern, but there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that.
Established in 1953, Delmark is the country’s oldest label exclusively devoted to jazz and the blues, and as such most of us would probably agree it’s worth saving. Julie A. Miller (president and CEO) and Elbio Barilari (vice-president and artistic director) are the ones who are actually making that happen.
