Music

Peter Bergin Piano/Ragtime and Great American Songbook – Fourth Presbyterian Church – July 26, 2024

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Bergin started by announcing his one rule – the audience could/should sing along, but only to the song he’s playing. Seemed reasonable.

With that he launched into his snappy piano playing, starting with a song with no lyrics, unless you’re Maggie Brown (see my previous blog on Peddling Music in Rhythm), Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer.

Just as Brown did, Bergin mentioned the song’s use by ice cream trucks, which is said to have originated in 1973 after the founder of the company that supplied the preloaded music boxes to a majority of the country’s ice cream trucks, heard the song in the movie The Sting.

He followed with a George M. Cohan medley, some John Philip Sousa, and other oldies, including Bill Bailey Won’t You Come Home, adding some lyrics of his own about the Baileys from the neighbors’ viewpoint, no mention of whether they were using binoculars to spy on the couple.

Peddling Music in Rhythm – Harold Washington Library – July 25, 2024

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When I was kid, there used to be a scrap man who walked through our alley singing out, to the best of my recollection, “old stoves, radiators” in the hope that residents would take advantage of his willingness to cart things away for them and thereby provide him with materials he might recycle for cash in the years before the 1960s, when recycling programs sprouted.

I say to the best of my recollection, because Maggie Brown, the very talented daughter of Oscar Brown, Jr., told us, at the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Peddling Music in Rhythm program, that her father wrote the song Rags and Old Iron after he finally realized what the guy in his alley had been calling out.

Maggie and her excellent backup trio then entertained us with a rendition of that, preceded by Herbie Hancock’s similarly-inspired Watermelon Man, and followed by her own songs, songs by Abbey Lincoln, and other of her father’s songs, which she told us would be part of a 2026 celebration of what would have been his 100th birthday.

Maggie, known as a storyteller, took us back to the days of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and gave us a sneak preview of a project or hers about Scott Joplin, including a version of The Entertainer for which she has written lyrics.

All throughout her performance, Maggie never stopped moving, gliding soulfully to the music whether while singing or listening to the band’s instrumental interludes.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – July 17 & 19, 2024

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Two beautiful evenings, two large crowds, two wonderful concerts.

On July 17th, I had a feeling of deja vu while listening to pianist 
Clayton Stephenson play Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. And then it occurred to me that I had heard it played by Bill Murray’s character (though really played by session musician Terry Fryer) in Groundhog Day at the party near the end of the movie.

So, it wasn’t an illusion of memory, or one triggered by reliving the same day 12,395 times, as computed and suggested by the yahoo!movies website, but rather an actual memory of a movie I saw three days in a row when it first opened.

On the 19th, for Star Wars and More: The Music of John Williams, I thought I might see a lot of attendees, particularly younger ones, in costume, but there was a dearth of Darth Vaders.

The Grant Park Orchestra, in top form both days, was led that day by Anthony Parnther, who, in addition to demonstrating his conducting skills and James Earl Jones impersonation, albeit from The Lion King, not Star Wars, proved to be an engaging raconteur, entertaining us with, among others, a story about a sound editing room physical altercation about a E.T. score volume alteration.

Charlie Musselwhite and Ivan Singh- Millennium Park Summer Music Series – July 1, 2024

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Argentinian guitarist Ivan Singh (before you ask – his great grandfather was from India), who came to Chicago only a couple years ago, was a very loud opening act. I should have brought my ear plugs. Once I found a place to hang out suitably far away from the stage, I was able to enjoy his music.

But I wasn’t there for him, so I was happy to hear him fire up Sweet Home Chicago, which, predictably, meant he was closing his act.

After a break, blues legend Charlie Musselwhite entered the stage, harmonica in hand. I don’t think I was the only one there for him.

A fair number of people in the park rose to their feet to start dancing as soon as he raised his instrument. And I’m talking young people, though the older generation, folks who knew of him from way back when, some of whom didn’t see to have changed their wardrobe since, were plentiful throughout the crowded lawn.

Musselwhite, who did not disappoint, came to Chicago in 1962, and has played with all the local greats. He told a Sonny Boy Williamson story that must have been funny – the people in the first few rows laughed – but I couldn’t hear the details, even though I had by then moved closer, relieved by the fact that he and his excellent backup band maintained an acceptable decibel level.

Richès Dayiti: Rediscovered Haitian Piano Treasures with Marianne Parker – Harold Washington Library – June 29, 2024

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This was Marianne Parker’s final performance on behalf of Crossing Borders Music, so I won’t have to renew my passport after all. It’s the third time I’ve seen her give a concert of beautiful Haitian compositions, in three different venues, not to mention, though I will, that I also have her CD of the same genre, Pages intimes,

What can I say. She was flawless, and entertaining, as always. So let’s move on to the venue. I go to a lot of concerts at (Jay) Pritzker Pavillon in Millennium Park, but this may have been my first time hearing music at (Cindy) Pritzker Hall at the Harold Washington Library. Wonderful place. Comfortable seats, lots of leg room, good sight lines, excellent acoustics, nicely temperature controlled (i.e. not over air conditioned) on a hot day, working drinking fountains, clean bathrooms and an escalator in lieu of stairs. I may move in.

Make Music Chicago – Washington Square Park – June 21, 2024

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Less than 24 hours after the summer solstice and I’m already depressed, as the day seems so much shorter than yesterday. But I press ahead and make my annual footslog to the Make Music Chicago celebration.

This year, in conjunction with The Newberry’s A Night at Mr. Kelly’s exhibit, Washington Square Park presented, I think, the jazz group, the Marshall Vente Trio (Vente is a keyboard player, but Jeremy Kahn was tickling the plastics on the digital piano, and I wasn’t paying attention to all the introductions, so I don’t know), with Greta Pope, and the blues group Mississippi Heat, whom I saw at the same event two years ago and was prepared for this time, remembering to bring my ear plugs, which was not a reflection on their quality, but rather their volume.

As entertaining as the bands were, and as beautiful as the 80-degree day was, I couldn’t help but imagine the chill in the air from the autumn breeze that will be here in a day less than three months. Nevertheless, I was heartened by the fact that, despite the complaining I hear from my suburban friends, there wasn’t a cicada to be seen or heard.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – June 14, 2024

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I don’t bother writing about all my trips to the Grant Park Music Festival as it becomes boring to comment on one pleasurable evening after another and my grasp of the English language (even my native Mid-American version thereof) is such that I eventually run out of adjectives and/or the strength to defend my use of them.

But, I would be remiss if I didn’t relate my new experience this week, that is having something resembling a conversation with the festival’s chorus director, Christopher Bell, or, as he introduced himself to me prior to the June 14th concert, Chris, which, may I add, resulted in my new acquaintance taking my suggestion regarding the need for a jazzier pre-show 10-minute chime warning for those of us hanging out in the tent, usurping the chimes and mallet and playing a little ditty himself for the nearby patrons.

The interaction is noteworthy on two counts. First, that it happened at all, which can be solely attributed to Chris’s friendliness, his need to stand somewhere to eat his turkey pinwheel and there being such an available “where” right next to me.

Second, as he seemed like a nice guy, I restrained myself and didn’t mention that I hate choral performances (don’t tell him) and had no intention for staying past intermission to hear The Cloud Messenger (after thoroughly enjoying Christian Tetzlaff playing Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor in the first half of the concert).

One final note. The mere title, The Cloud Messenger, is a turnoff for me. I’ve never seen a movie I liked with the word cloud in the title, including the critically-acclaimed, but not by me, Cloud Atlas.

I will admit, however, to liking Chicago’s Cloud Gate and the songs Get Off of My Cloud and Cloud Nine, though I’m still confused as to how one can look at clouds from both sides.

Raviv – Around Town – June 8, 2024

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I wanted to see the trio Raviv, for my my first time seeing electric cello players (two brothers, one in college and the other in high school, which hasn’t stood in the way of them getting bar gigs), at the Old Town Art Fair, but wasn’t sure I could get there in time, so I decided I’d see them later in the day instead at the Wells Street Art Fair, which is less crowded and closer.

But there was the expectation of rain in the afternoon (appropriately Raviv translates as rain or raindrops), so, despite running late, I rushed to see some of their set at the OTAF.

Of course, the weather then started clearing up, so I decided to double up and see what I had missed of them at the WSAF, where my hand stamp from the OTAF would do me no good whatsoever in terms of entry. I went home first and changed shoes so they wouldn’t recognize me and think I was some kind of stalker.

There was no cowbell, but there was loud drumming, which, though good, I would have turned the volume down on to better highlight the cellos. I’ve heard drums before.

The brothers played the cellos like electric guitars, if those had only four strings, and were planted on the ground and played upright, with bows, in a way that put Jimmy Page’s bowing with The Yardbirds to shame.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis – Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center – April 27, 2024

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In the week that Foxtrot’s convenience stores closed, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened the concert with John Adams’s The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra). As with everything that followed, it was a hit.

Then it was on to Shostakovich’s Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1, arranged by Atovmyan in eight movements, which challenged the time-worn, or is it worn-out, tradition of saving applause until the end of the piece.

It wasn’t always so according to a nice little article I found with some history and differences of opinion on the topic.

In any event, a sizable portion of the audience could not restrain themselves, perhaps because they were attracted to the event by the appearance of Wynton Marsalis and the jazz orchestra. No such tradition at jazz concerts.

It even became interactive, and funny, when some in the audience started clapping during a moment of silence before the ending to one of the movements. The conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero, acknowledged the faux pas, and, when the movement really ended, turned to the audience with a nod and then back to the musicians for a look of appreciation for not missing a beat.

After intermission the jazz orchestra joined the CSO on stage, bringing the head count to about 573, or maybe not quite that many, but it was so crowded that some of the violinists had to sit at the kid’s table.

The guests played Duke Ellington’s Mooche, not to be confused with Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher.

Then the groups, with their own distinct stylistic arrangements, separately took on Prokofiev’s Selections from Romeo and Juliet, alternating between the eight movements (each one followed by applause), before finishing together with Marsalis’s All American Pep from Swing Symphony. Something for everyone.

CelloBello Celebrates Chamber Music – The Arts Club of Chicago – April 24, 2024

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I wanted to ask Katina Kleijn, one of the featured cellists (with Ken Olsen and Brant Taylor), what she thought about the name CelloBello, as opposed to, say, CelloBella or CellaBella, but I restrained myself. After all, I live for rhymes, and Cella translates to cell.

All the music was terrific, but, for me, the highlight of the first half of the program was, of course, the rendition of The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy, featuring three cellos (celli?) and some wicked piano-playing by Craig Terry, whom I told afterward I hated because he was so good at what I yearned to master (I’m currently attempting Death Ray Boogie, which is just as scary as it sounds).

There also was a bit with an unlit cigarette dangling from Taylor’s mouth during part of his solo that you had to be there to appreciate.

Unlike many of these events, there was nothing that I would derogatorily classify as speechifying. The oratory was interesting and kept to a minimum, and there was cheese available at the back of the room all the while, just in case. Moreover, all the appetizers were excellent and the deserts did not escape my attention.

The second half was a rousing rendition of Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 performed by the Balourdet and Pacifica Quartets.

These eight musicians got more exercise during the piece than I ever did in a Pilates class. Some of the violinists were swaying, bobbing and weaving like a bunch of fans doing an energetic version of the wave at a football game. They were clearly having a great time, as was the audience. One of the viola players occasionally seemed to be imagining that he was using a ThighMaster.

The exercise regimen continued, especially for the cellists, as the group, at the end of the concert, all the while carrying their instruments, kept coming back for more deserved applause.

They may still be doing that, but I bolted (at least my version on two bad knees), grabbing brownies on the way out and being the first person to arrive at the coat check, a perfect ending to a wonderful evening.