Music

Donna Herula Trio – Old Town Art Fair – June 14, 2025

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I really got my money’s worth – there were four musicians in the Donna Herula Trio.

I’d never heard of the Independent Blues Awards (given out by Making the Scene!, the self-proclaimed #1 resource for the independent artist and the fans who love them), but winning anything is probably better than not winning it, so I figured Herula’s 2022 awards for Best Acoustic Blues Album (Bang at the Door) and Best Traditional Blues Artist might be indicative of someone I’d want to hear.

I was right, though, interestingly, this was not an acoustic performance (still, no earplugs necessary).

I liked all the songs the trio (quartet?) played from the album, starting with the title song, and followed by Can’t Wait to See My Baby, which, we were told, is normally a duet sung by Herula and her husband, Tony Nardiello (but he apparently could wait, because he wasn’t there, and she instead sang both parts herself).

Herula enlisted the audience to repeatedly repeat the hook in I Got No Way Home, a lyric that, perhaps, explained her husband’s absence.

The album contains two versions of Black Ice, a song Herula wrote based on the couple’s survival of a driving mishap. She originally wrote lyrics, but her husband told her that a blues song can’t have a happy ending, so she also recorded an instrumental version, which is what she played for us, even though hubby wasn’t there to know.

The hour and a half set also featured legendary blues songs, including Walkin’ Blues, Give Me Back My Wig and You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Dead and Gone.

The next good opportunity for me to see Herula will be in August at the Navy Pier Beer Garden. I’ll be there. I don’t know if Nardiello will make it.

Grant Park Music Festival – Opening Night – June 11, 2025

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Going in I was somewhat surprised to see that Andrew Litton would not only be conducting, but also playing the piano for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The double duty seemed like too much to me. Litton assured us, however, before the piece, that, because the pianist and the orchestra play apart from each other during the composition, it wasn’t really a problem.

I think he was wrong. First, there certainly were, unsurprisingly, places in the music where there was overlap. (Did he think we wouldn’t notice?) Second, though it was amusing(?) to watch him sporadically rise from the piano bench for two or three seconds at a time to wave his hands at musicians who probably weren’t watching him before sitting back down and immediately resume his playing, I can’t help but think that it affected his concentration.

So, how did he sound? Next time the festival rolls out Rhapsody in Blue, please bring back Michelle Cann. Her rendition was much more dynamic. I’ll even go so far as to say that I preferred Sean Hayes’s interpretation in the play Good Night, Oscar.

As for the rest of the concert, I had not previously heard either Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three Latin American Dances or Manuel De Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, though I had heard good things about the latter, before going, from a friend in the know, who remains credible, as I enjoyed it.

Porchlight Music Theatre – Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight- House of Blues – May 12, 2025

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Twenty-one songs, played by a top-notch band and performed by an extraordinary cast of 20, not counting, though I should, the additional eight “Youth Performers” who joined in for They’re Playing Our Song, as a prelude to the irrepressible auctioneer Greg “G-man” Dellinger once again doing his thing by racing around the room to help unburden willing attendees from any up-to-that-point unspent charitable contributions weighing them down.

The room was too cold for my comfort, making me think of the book I’m currently reading – FROSTBITE: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves – but the music was hot, especially, for me, starting right before intermission, when the legendary E. Faye Butler resurrected her award-winning Mama Rose.

First act rabbit hole for me – I had to look up the show Closer Than Ever (and its song – Fathers of Fathers), which apparently came out in 1989, with music by David Shire, who I knew had previously given his name to Talia Shire, née Coppola, but who, I didn’t know, has long been married to Edith Bernstein – Didi Conn of Grease fame.

You know you’re in for a great show when three of the Five Guys Named Moe (Court Theatre – 2017) are in the cast. One of them, Lorenzo Rush Jr. provided one of the evening’s highlights when he used his performance of Honeysuckle Rose, from his award-winning performance in Ain’t Misbehavin’, to further honor the evening’s Guy Adkins Award winner Heidi Kettenring, presenting her with a long-stemmed beauty.

Having thus resurrected the rose theme, Erica Stephan did the same for the mama through line, giving us Don’t Tell Mama from her award-winning performance as Sally Bowles, and making me glad that I hadn’t listened to Randy Newman’s warning in Mama Told Me Not to Come.

The Boogie Woogie Kid – Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert – May 9, 2025

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As far as I know, Matt Ball, probably when he was much younger, self-proclaimed himself to be the Boogie Woogie Kid, which, I think, is against all the rules of nicknaming, which, by most standards, must come from your peers.

That said, Ball may have the fastest hands this side of Las Vegas magician Shin Lim or the late Sugar Ray Robinson, although Guinness World Records says that Keita Hattori of Japan established the new mark for most piano key hits in one minute, in December 2024, with 1030 keys.

My problem with that record is that Hattori just hit the same key over and over again. And I don’t mean him playing the Rodgers and Hart melody Johnny One Note from Babes in Arms (thank you Judy Garland). Can the guy even carry a tune?

Ball can. And though I thought it was a little doubtful that he could get through his set list of 15 songs (along with introductions) in 50 minutes, it was no problem. He even found a way to boogie woogie-ize some songs that don’t normally fit that mold, such as Amazing Grace. And please note that every song was recognizable.

Michelle Cann – Northwestern Bienan School of Music – May 2, 2025

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Michelle Cann. I cannot.

I’m sure that one of the keys to her performance was that, according to the program, she had the services of not only a Piano Technician, but also a Supervisor of Keyboard Maintenance. (I have neither.) Also, I should add, the Mary A. Galvin Recital Hall is a terrific venue.

All that and the fact that she is an expressive, energetic, extraordinary pianist, who augments her playing with behind-the-music stories that are educational, enlightening and entertaining. And just when you think you can sit back and savor the concert you just heard, she knocks your socks off with an all-time great encore.

This is the third time I’ve written about seeing Cann perform in the last two years, so there’s not much more I can say, other than I want more. She’s taking a break soon, but she’ll be playing Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 with the Cincinnati Symphony next week. Road trip?

Another Life Lesson Learned

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Those who know me know that I have a sometimes unhealthy need to follow instructions. The Ravinia Festival website said tickets for 2025 season concerts would go on sale at 8:00 am, which I took at face value. DUMB!

I didn’t find out until I logged in age 8:00 that you could get in the queue at 6:30. OOPS!

Needless to say, but I will anyway, there were a few people in line ahead of me, actually over 25 THOUSAND!

I use the term people loosely, as I’m sure many of them were secondary sellers (either living, breathing ones or sentient bots), which sounds much kinder, though it shouldn’t, than scalpers. (Interestingly, the term scalper is said to have arisen in the 19th century, as applied to railroad ticket brokers who sold tickets for rates LOWER(!) than face value.)

Rest assured, that is no longer the case, though I must add that I once got a nice price for a Boston Celtics game in the final year of the old Boston Garden by waiting until after the tipoff to make my purchase on the street, which had the added benefit of aggravating what had been a smug seller until he realized I wasn’t bluffing.

The secondary lesson here is not to schedule two things in one day, as the workman I had hired showed up at my door just as my computer pinged to tell me I had 15 seconds to make my purchase. Okay, actually 20 minutes, but I was already in a frenzy, so it seemed like 15 seconds. I believe that’s a corollary to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Chamber Music Immersive – Chicago History Museum – May 12, 2025

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This was the first of what the Chicago History Museum hopes will be a series of regular events in the future. I hope they are successful in putting it together. It was wonderful, though there really shouldn’t have been any nuts on top of the chocolate brownies, even though they were easily scraped off.

Violinist Philippe Quint put the program together and took the role of master of ceremonies, along with his featured role as a terrific musician. Christopher Guzman provided flawless work of the piano and the excellent cellist was either Calum Smith or Calum Cook, depending on whether you believe the program listing or his bio as principal cellist at the Lyric Opera.

Clarice Assad appeared to perform her composition of The Last Song (for voice and piano), which allowed me to hear Brazilian scat for the first time. I want more.

On the down side, in an attempt to tie the concert into the museum’s current exhibit Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective, Quint brought in five members of The Joffrey Ballet to act as “super models” (his term) for various garments. Most of the outfits were, at best, meh, and it was a terrific waste of talent, though mercifully short in duration. I had been hoping for actual dance. Quint might as well have used people from cousin Jeffrey’s ballet.

Season Prelude Reception and Dinner with the Maestro – Millennium Park – February 20, 2025

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The maestro, in case you have been avoiding all news, is the new Grant Park Music Festival (GPMF) artistic director and principal conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero, replacing Carlos Kalmar.

Addressing a packed stage, Guerrero had a lot to say about his background and plans, not only for this year, but also the future, in particular next year’s 250th anniversary of something or other.

He did so in a rapid-fire style that would make Aaron Sorkin proud. I was assured by GPMF staff that not everything he conducts moves at that same lightening-fast pace.

In his remarks, GPMF President and CEO Paul Winberg mentioned the organization’s successful DEI efforts, and didn’t get hit by lightning.

It never gets old sitting on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage, with the glass doors closed to spare us from the frigid temperatures, and looking out onto Millennium Park from the vantage point, in this case, of a member of the violin section of the Grant Park Orchestra.

Several times I noticed the headlights from a golf cart driving east to west across the division between the seats and the lawn, which I assume was either some sort of security check or a search for the most wayward shot in history.

We were treated to two beautiful cello selections played by this year’s artist-in-residence, Inbal Segev. I wish I could tell you what they were, but I must have been too focused on the hunt for the golf ball. Segev will be playing at two consecutive Wednesday concerts in July, which I look forward to and when there will be written programs for me to crib from.

There also was a mezzo-soprano, who probably was very good, delivering a couple short songs, but, as we know, I don’t care.

Dinner in the Choral Hall was excellent (special kudos to the rolls).

Finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning my excitement when parking in the Millennium Park Garage for the first time and having the gates open automatically for me upon recognizing my license plates as entered on my prepay online form. I’m easily amused.

Michelle Cann – The Women of Chicago’s Black Renaissance – Logan Center – January 24, 2025

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This was the second time I’ve seen pianist Michelle Cann perform. She was fabulous in the summer of 2023 when I saw her play Rhapsody in Blue at the Grant Park Music Festival (actually at an afternoon rehearsal I fortunately attended as I correctly anticipated weather issues for the evening performance). Even at a bit of a distance, her energy and enthusiasm, atop her skills, were evident.

From a closer vantage point for this concert, it was even better. And, since it was just her, we also got to hear her passion through background introductions about the composers before each piece. She has a magnetic, contagious personalty, further confirmed by her interaction with attendees after the performance. And she sure can play the piano.

She brought to life the music and stories of Nora Holt, Betty Jackson King, Florence Price, Irene Britton Smith and Margaret Bonds.  I was previously unfamiliar with the music, but Instantly attracted to it.

Michelle is coming back to town later this year, with a whole different playlist, but I think I’ll keep the details to myself until I get a ticket, so I won’t miss out.

A Beautiful Noise – Cadillac Palace – November 19, 2024

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There’s a lot to like in this show about Neil Diamond’s life. If you’re a fan of his music, as I am, there’s lots of that, with a rocking band.

And Nick Fradiana sounds just like Diamond. According to Broadway.com, Fradiani “spent a year and a half analyzing videos on YouTube and absorbing Diamond’s voice (speaking and singing), mannerisms and general aura.”

Hard work is great, but it’s not as good a story as when Stephanie J. Block won a Tony as Cher after she found her voice while wearing a teeth-whitening device,

Diamond’s first two wives play a big part in the show. Hannah Jewel Kohn as his second wife, Marcia Murphey, grabbed the spotlight with her rendition of Forever in Blue Jeans, while lighting up the stage throughout with her dancing and non-stop motor, even when she was “just” part of the outstanding chorus, which was backed by great choreography and a couple of very clever entrances that looked like magic.

I also really liked Kate Mulligan’s spirited turn as record producer Ellie Greenwich, but wouldn’t have minded a little more background on the woman who had her own impressive list of big time songwriting credits, which earned her a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Jeff Barry, who also played a part in Diamond’s career, but not in the show.

The real Greenwich and Barry can be seen in Bang! The Bert Berns Story, a highly-rated documentary, promoted on IMDB as “music meets the mob,” about another character in the play who merits more attention.

The energy in the house started dragging a little at a point in the second act when the psychoanalysis that constitutes the framework of the show went on too long, while the audience craved more music.

But all was forgiven when the cast led the audience in the mandatory reprise of Sweet Caroline.