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Feature Friday: Seat ExtenderJill Ciminilloon June 12, 2020 at 10:59 pm

Drive, She Said

Feature Friday: Seat Extender

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Feature Friday: Seat ExtenderJill Ciminilloon June 12, 2020 at 10:59 pm Read More »

Friday, 6/12/2020: Today’s Chicago Renaissanve AssignmentsDeanna Burrellon June 13, 2020 at 6:09 am

The Red Cup Adventures

Friday, 6/12/2020: Today’s Chicago Renaissanve Assignments

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Friday, 6/12/2020: Today’s Chicago Renaissanve AssignmentsDeanna Burrellon June 13, 2020 at 6:09 am Read More »

Ways to Beat Stress During LockdownEraina Davison June 13, 2020 at 4:26 am

The Good Life

Ways to Beat Stress During Lockdown

©2020 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
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Ways to Beat Stress During LockdownEraina Davison June 13, 2020 at 4:26 am Read More »

Quin Kirchner merges eclectic sounds into transcendent jazz on The Shadows and the LightJordannah Elizabethon June 12, 2020 at 9:08 pm

The Shadows and the Light, the new album from Chicago drummer Quin Kirchner, is an eclectic collection of freewheeling studio performances with a diverse range of sounds. On its second track, “Bata Chop,” the album features influences of West African bata drum and traces of Afro-Cuban drumming (which Kirchner learned as a teenager while studying in Havana), but elsewhere there are bebop flourishes and interplanetary adornments originally stylized by the mystical jazz mad hatter, Sun Ra. Opener “Shadow Intro” features Kirchner solo on overdubbed drum kit, congas, and synths, showcasing his chops without extraneous accompaniment. The album goes on to present organ- and horn-laden jazz that allows his compositional abilities to shine, played by a revolving all-star group of local musicians that includes bassist Matt Ulery, tenor saxophonist and flutist Nate Lepine, Wurlitzer player Rob Clearfield, alto saxophonist Greg Ward, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, and trombonist Nick Broste (who also mixed and helped engineer the album along with Kirchner and Brian Sulpizio). The first few tracks on The Shadows and the Light seem intended to be singular compositions, but then Kirchner begins to experiment with creating mini movements; as one song ends, the next picks up exactly where it leaves off. He does this with the fifth and sixth tracks, his own “Pathways” and an arrangement of the Kelan Phil Cohran tune “Sahara.” “Pathways” is sparse and minimal, with Kirchner’s kalimba accompanied only by Ulery’s quiet pizzicato on upright bass; it ends with Lepine’s soft flute flowing into “Sahara,” which quickly swells with saxophones and rumbling drum fills. Kirchner reverses this technique on the next two tracks, the all-horn quintet “Star Cluster” and the septet piece “Moon Vision.” The first erupts with a flood of free improvisation on trombone, bass clarinet, and three saxophones, wailing without form or limitation, and the second immediately moves into something softer and more restrained. Kirchner isn’t just playing around with these mini movements; he’s exploring sound and visualization through evocative pieces that transcend tangible reality, and he adds additional context with vivid titles such as “Lucid Dreams,” “Jupiter Moon,” and “Horizons.” The Shadows and the Light is a tightly plotted-out dream world that showcases Kirchner’s creative spirit, as well as the seriousness and refinement he brings to the table–you can practically hear the cogs systematically moving in his head from track to track. It all works because Kirchner is a strong musician who knows how to transform eccentricity into something that can appeal to diverse listeners, rather than jazz aficionados alone. v

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Quin Kirchner merges eclectic sounds into transcendent jazz on The Shadows and the LightJordannah Elizabethon June 12, 2020 at 9:08 pm Read More »

Hobbyist want you to dance in the dark to Side FxLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:02 pm

Chicago experimental electronic-pop duo Hobbyist are well suited to capture the anxiety that’s been our constant companion since the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world. Producer Marc Mozga creates a stark, austere sound from programmed percussion and synth licks, and his prickly, spacious beats and sparse melodies feel like they could raise the undead. Meanwhile the restrained vocals of front woman Holly Prindle split the difference between sinister and sultry, making her sound like a possessed lounge singer. Mozga and Prindle worked on their new self-released EP, Side Fx, throughout April, recording its wobbly, dark pop songs on a phone app while sheltering in place. Despite the circumstances that inform the EP, Hobbyist stop short of going full doom-and-gloom. When Prindle compares the way she lives in quarantine to the habits of bunker-bound survivalists on the dub-driven “Preppers,” the two words she keeps repeating (“Cook my own / Build my own / Can my own / Shoot my own”) suggest she takes comfort in the power she has to provide for herself. v

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Hobbyist want you to dance in the dark to Side FxLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:02 pm Read More »

Chicago rapper Lucki settles into his hot streak on Almost ThereLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:36 pm

Any future history of Chicago hip-hop would be incomplete without a chapter about rapper Lucki. Starting with his startling 2013 debut, Alternative Trap, he’s been shaping and tightening a distinctive style built on forlorn storytelling and a languorous flow. His zonked-out affectations can make his songs seem tossed off, but when you listen deeper, the vulnerability, anxiety, and tension he carries in his gritty groan strike you with full force. Lucki has been on a remarkable streak the past couple years, and his third full-length in 15 months, May’s Almost There (Lucki/Empire), lands like a three-pointer in the final seconds of a blowout second quarter in game seven of the NBA finals. Lucki fits vivid tales strewn with drugs, fast cars, and heartbreak into songs that barely break two minutes, and his subtle inflections lend each track a noirish gravitas. As dark as he can get, he steers away from the morose; on “Pure Love-Hate,” Lucki’s voice threads through a brittle bell melody and a melting vocal sample with a subtle uplift that gives his story of a past dalliance a sense of spiritual fulfillment. v

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LUCKI . Almost There

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Chicago rapper Lucki settles into his hot streak on Almost ThereLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:36 pm Read More »

UK rapper Little Simz works from home to summon power, dreaminess, and dread on Drop 6Salem Collo-Julinon June 12, 2020 at 9:10 pm

British rapper Simbi Ajikawo, who records as Little Simz, jumps right into your ears with her distinctive beats and fluid style on “Might Bang, Might Not,” the first song on the new Drop 6. “You ain’t seen no one like me since / Lauryn Hill in the 90s, bitch,” she raps, laying down the law to anyone who might question her abilities or commitment. “I am a one-woman army / I am the force that we speak of.” Born in London to Nigerian parents, the 26-year-old Ajikawo has been putting out music since she was a teenager, starting with the self-released 2010 mixtape Stratosphere. In 2014, she embarked on the Drops series of EPs (on her own Age 101 imprint), inspired in part by the experimental eclecticism of her early mixtapes–they combine a relatively minimal approach to production with raw lyrics and snippets of musical thoughts. Ajikawo put the finishing touches on Drop 6 in April, while staying alone in her London home due to COVID-19 concerns. Its five songs retain some of the fiery elements of Little Simz’s 2019 LP Grey Area, where her quick-witted lyrics portray her as a force working against any lovers and power structures that might try to slow her roll. But on the new EP, dreaminess and dread creep into her songs: if she was a superheroine on Grey Area, then on Drop 6 she’s her slightly more mild-mannered alter ego, just trying to fit in with the humans. On the EP’s last song, “Where’s My Lighter?,” Little Simz gives herself a progress review: “In this world we need balance / I’m here nurturing my talent.” She’s joined on this track by fellow Londoner Alewya, whose hazy voice adds eeriness to an understated beat punctuated by keyboard riffs. The songs on Drop 6 are full of racing thoughts about relationships and responsibility, disrupted by moments of confusion provoked by the unseen forces that prevent us from leaving home. It’s an entirely relatable journey as we all navigate the pandemic. v

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UK rapper Little Simz works from home to summon power, dreaminess, and dread on Drop 6Salem Collo-Julinon June 12, 2020 at 9:10 pm Read More »

Chicago rapper OG Stevo wastes no time getting his career in gear on The Last OGLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:45 pm

In the months since Rogers Park native Stevon Odueze graduated from Northern Illinois University in December, he’s been singularly focused on transforming his music from an undergraduate extracurricular activity into a career. And judging from the pop-forward hip-hop he’s released in the past six months, he’s well on his way. As OG Stevo, Odueze encodes melody into the DNA of his mike technique to supercharge his instrumentals–even when he’s not outright singing, he often ends his rapped lines with a honeyed lilt. The sweet, ebullient hook on February’s “Neighborhood Hero,” a song about departed friends, gives it an irrepressible joy that’s strong enough to make sure their memory lasts for generations. Odueze carries that energy into his latest EP, April’s The Last OG (OG Music Group), which packs euphoria into even its most sorrowful songs; atop the melancholy acoustic guitar and doleful keys of “Voices in My Head,” he unloads a tight string of bars with such power that it’s clear he can meet whatever challenges lie ahead. v

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Chicago rapper OG Stevo wastes no time getting his career in gear on The Last OGLeor Galilon June 12, 2020 at 9:45 pm Read More »

Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Kris Davis get to the heart of their collaborationBill Meyeron June 12, 2020 at 9:40 pm

Like so many other musicians based in New York, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Kris Davis migrated there. Davis moved from Canada in 2001; Laubrock was born and raised in Germany, then spent nearly a decade in England before moving to the U.S. in 2009. For as long as they’ve lived in the same neck of the woods, they’ve appeared on each other’s records, and for a time they played together in the trio Paradoxical Frog with drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Blood Moon, their first recording as a duo, exploits their exacting attunement to each other’s idiosyncratic moves. On the hushed Davis original “Flying Embers,” their adjacent pitches shimmer like the haze of an open flame, in sustained tones and short, pianissimo phrases that make you forget what instruments you’re hearing. The pianist’s restrained touch on the title track, a Laubrock composition, seems to place her notes inside the tenor saxophone’s sound. And on the improvisation “Gunweep,” soprano saxophone and piano exchange roles from second to second, each threading quicksilver phrases through the other’s staccato rhythms. Every one of the album’s nine pieces is a distinct, absorbing world unto itself. v

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Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Kris Davis get to the heart of their collaborationBill Meyeron June 12, 2020 at 9:40 pm Read More »

Jason Wilber transports the thoughtful, minimalism of his work with John Prine into his new album Time TravelerMark Guarinoon June 12, 2020 at 9:50 pm

Jason Wilber is known to audiences around the world for his impeccable guitar tones and tasteful playing in support of the late John Prine over the past 25 years. As Prine’s musical director, Wilber helped steer him back to the minimal sound of his records from the early 70s and, in the process, showcased that material’s lyrical and emotional weight. Throughout, Wilber also released his own impressive body of work. His latest album, Time Traveler, is his finest hour; its transfixing songs are as quiet and sparsely arranged as Prine audiences have come to expect from Wilber onstage, but the style is unmistakably his own. “I was there at the dawn of the here and the now when I opened my eyes and cried,” he sings in the first lines of the title track, which opens the record. “And throughout the years, all of my fears have come true a thousand times.” These meditative folk songs circle a central theme: the negligence of humans toward the environment and themselves. But Wilber is too good a songwriter to write mere polemics. These songs are their own excursions into reflective dreamscapes (“The Old Ones”), folk blues (“Spider”), acoustic pop (“Dust to Dust”), and other prime singer-songwriter fare. His protagonists are often outcasts: In “The Disappearance of Bigfoot,” Sasquatch is a wild beast attuned to her world until the scent of man wafts by and gets her running. In “Living Space,” an astronaut tumbles through the stratosphere and figures out that space “wasn’t what it was supposed to be . . . I miss my dog / I miss my family.” Wilber has a unique perspective about the planet too: “We took it all for granted like a spoiled kid / Now we live to regret it.” Wilber’s relaxed vocals, like Paul Simon’s, make those kinds of lines hang an extra beat until their gravity brings up a lump in your throat. Time Traveler isn’t a drum record: Wilber’s finely laced guitar and mandolin arrangements are accented by Susan Anderson’s violin and Shannon Hayden’s cello. Producer Paul Mahern (a studio veteran from Bloomington, Indiana, who’s worked with the likes of Blake Babies and John Mellencamp) makes every moment glow. Despite its somber themes, nothing on Time Traveler is meant to dull the pain; instead, these songs will likely make you feel at peace living with it. v

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Jason Wilber transports the thoughtful, minimalism of his work with John Prine into his new album Time TravelerMark Guarinoon June 12, 2020 at 9:50 pm Read More »