Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert

Elaine Dame – Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert – July 24, 2026

Posted on by admin

Elaine Dame let the crowd know right away not to request that she sing Old Man River, as it is not in her wheelhouse. Smart move.

She did, however, sing Moon River, and also played the flute for parts of it, though not simultaneously, which would have been something.

Her jazzy version of West Side Story’s Somewhere, while okay, did not have the emotional strength of the version sung by the four vocalists at the Grant Park Music Festival the night before.

I love jazz, but, in my opinion, layering that style of music just doesn’t make sense for every song. This profound revelation, along with Dame’s excellent scatting on some other songs, led me to wonder how composers feel about scat being added to their songs.

Out of laziness, and lack of concern for accuracy, I’m going all AI on you here. First, composers often write songs with scatting in mind and notated accordingly. Second, “songs that lend themselves best to scatting share specific traits, primarily up-tempo rhythms, jazz harmony, and repetitive or pentatonic melodic structures.” Third, singers like to ad lib different scats, even to the same song, but may defer to repetition of a scat that has become well known from a recording.

Dame included a Portuguese Samba song, the name of which I missed, as I don’t speak Portuguese. Dame admitted that she doesn’t either as she apologized in advance to anyone in the audience who did for any mispronunciations on her part. Turned out someone did, but I didn’t stick around afterward for any language lessons.

Local jazz guitarist favorite Andy Brown accompanied Dame and will be back as a headliner next week. I imagine he’ll also accompany his wife, Petra van Nuis, when she appears in three weeks.

Summer (Music) in the City – Five Concerts, Four Venues – June 9-14, 2026

Posted on by admin

With construction going on at St. James Cathedral, this year’s weekly, Tuesday evening, summer Rush Hour Concerts have moved to Holy Name Cathedral, which I had never before entered, so I figured what the h – – -, oops, sorry, not in church. Very elegant. And the music, Price and Mozart, was good.

Another opening, another show at the 2026 Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park.  I dodged the rain before and after the performance, which affected attendance, but the orchestra also showed up, and the music was excellent, Tower, Bernstein and Barber. The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story made me wonder whether musician auditions include demonstrations of finger-snapping skills.

What a long, strange journey to get to that concert. It took me three and a half weeks of begging, and desperately going over people’s heads, to get my tickets when they didn’t arrive as scheduled because, I was told, of a “unique and quite astounding” software problem that affected only me.

I hadn’t been to the Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert for a few weeks, and the next time I go will be for the outdoor season, in the beautiful courtyard, but I made it a point to see Jennifer Woodrum (clarinet) and Marianne Parker (piano), who, as I’ve written before, impresses not just with her technical excellence, but also with her performance style. On this day, she also demonstrated her ambidextrous, page-turning abilities, having forgotten her foot pedal at home, which she knew I would razz her about afterward.

The weather that day remained too good to pass up, so I doubled up, heading back to Millennium Park for that night’s Grant Park Music Festival program, featuring Ives and Brahms, before leaving early so as to avoid having to listen to a mass of people making vocal noises from the stage during classical music.

Two days later I made my annual trek to the Old Town Art Fair, not to see the art, such as it is there, but rather to see local blues star Donna Herula and her band do their thing, which I expect to do more of this summer when they appear at Navy Pier.

Last Week Today, Musically – August 24, 2025

Posted on by admin

I went to my first, and last, since the season is now over, Rush Hour Concert of the year at St, James Cathedral. I went for the Florence Price Concert Overture No. 2 (Iso trendy) and stayed for the Dvořák Wind Serenade, Op. 44, not just because it was so good, but also because it allowed me to exercise my skill at putting the appropriate accents over the letters in the composer’s name. I would tell you the name of the group, but it didn’t have one, apparently being an assemblage of a dozen top-flight musicians who found themselves together in a rehearsal hall at some point and decided to put on a show.

The week took a downturn with the Noonday Concert at Fourth Presbyterian Church, where I suffered through about 20 minutes of Carla Gordon’s attempts at humor and less-than-fulfilling vocal presentations of what she inaccurately described as early 20th-Century Broadway show tunes. One attendee used the time to do deep knee bends. On the other hand, to paraphrase Julius Caesar, and perhaps quote Sid, Veni, Vidi, Verti (I came, I saw, I gave up).

Order was restored on Saturday, starting with the two guys who entertain every week on the sidewalk by the Green City Market Lincoln Park, playing a combination of the blues and Motown on guitar, keyboard and kick drum. Next time I need a small band for an event (which will be the first time) they’re my choice, though I have no idea what their names are or if they are in witness protection.

Finally, I topped off the week’s musical adventure at the Thirsty Ears Festival, which I wrote about three years ago and returned to once again to see pianist Marianne Parker, whom I’ve written about many times before, this time paired with violist Michael Hall, who, among many other things, is the co-founder of the first professional orchestra in Indonesia.

Before that excellent duo, I saw a fun performance by the Chicago Sinfonietta and a weird one, by my standards, by pianist Alex Reyes, who not only played some with his elbow, though not in an entertaining Jerry Lee Lewis way, but also, at times, with the aid of what appeared to be an old rag or dish cloth, perhaps due to either a fear of germs or the sudden urge to clean. Fortunately Parker and Hall followed, so as to calm my otherwise urgent need to depart, as if Gordon had followed me to the event.

Ian Murrel and Jeremy Vigil – Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert – July 18, 2025

Posted on by admin

Ian Murrel has a strong baritone voice that he put on good display while singing an eclectic selection of pieces (accompanied by Jeremy Vigil on the piano), ranging from some French thing to a sing-a long Take Me Out to the Ballgame, with stops in between for Lerner and Loew, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Elvis Presley..

But I had my issues, or rather he did. How could he not know that his iPad, with his lyrics, would overheat after 30 minutes in the sun? Fortunately, a move to the shade precipitated a fairly quick recovery.

Hasn’t anyone ever told him (I would have but left instead) that the correct lyric in Take Me Out to the Ballgame is “Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack” not cracker jacks? If you don’t believe me, look it up in the Baseball Almanac.

What possessed him to sing “The New Suit (“Zipperfly”) by Marc Blitzstein, which includes the lyric “Racka moochy wicky wachy and a woo haggedy goo,” which is not nearly as meaningful as “A-boogity-boogity-boogity-boogity-shooby-do-wop-she-bop Chang-chang, changity-chang-shoo-bop?”

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

Posted on by admin

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.

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

Posted on by admin

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.

Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert and Chicago Jazz Festival – September 1, 2023

Posted on by admin

At the church, Ashley Ertz (oboe) and Lillia Woolschlager (piano) treated us with a Samuel Coleridge-Taylor piece I can’t remember the name of, possibly because I never looked at it in the program. 

I didn’t stay for the rest of the concert, featuring composers unknown to me, and compositions from the latter half of the 20th century, a potential red flag for me, though, I admit, the music wafting through the Sanctuary as I left sounded like something I might have liked. But I had other fish, or beignets, to fry and so headed for the Jazz Festival.  

As promised to myself last week after seeing the Juan Pastor trio at the Noonday Concert, I went to see Pastor’s Chincahno, expecting a quintet, but pleasantly surprised to hear a septet, whose sound filled Millennium Park with Peruvian-inspired top-tapping rhythms.    

And, as with any music festival worth its salt, a wide variety of overpriced t-shirts were available for purchase.  

More interestingly, there was a creole food stand, whose offerings included the aforementioned beignets. The last time I had one of those, it was with a cup of coffee and chicory, sitting outside at the original Cafe du Monde (there are now 10) on the banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, where the beignets are served in threes in case eating just one of these deeply fried treats is not enough to clog every artery in your body. The approximately 60 million steps I’ve taken since then hopefully have negated that indulgence, but I decided not to risk further damage this time, even though there was a medical vehicle stationed not too far away.

Coming Attractions (or not) – September, 2023

Posted on by admin

I was berated today for not telling people about events before they happen. So, for all of you out there who haven’t yet learned how to use your computer, and since I have a little time to kill, here are some ideas for things to do in September.

First, and foremost, and before you tire of my sarcasm, you must go to the Porchlight Music Theatre’s Icons Gala on the 8th at the Athenaeum Center. It will, as always, be a very entertaining evening and, if you buy one of the top-tier tickets, you get to mingle with me at the pre-show cocktail reception. Also, the guest of honor, Ben Vereen, will be in attendance.

As I alluded to in an earlier post, the Chicago Jazz Festival comes to town the first few days of the month. You’re on your own as to which acts might interest you. I stopped going years ago, as I tired of the modern, atonal nonsense they inappropriately call music, but there are a few acts on the calendar this year that I either have seen before and liked or am confident enough about to risk a trek down to Millennium Park or the Cultural Center for a look-see.

The Fourth Presbyterian Church takes its Noonday Concerts indoors starting this Friday, which seems premature to me, but allows them to put to use their big honking organ, though, fortunately for my tastes, not until the end of the month, so, again, why not keep things outdoors until then.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (seems like 40 years taking into account having to traverse all those stairs) on the 9th in Millennium Park. The unprecise schedule makes it hard to know when I might want to drop in, though the likelihood of families attending the afternoon sessions is fair warning to avoid those.

The Printers Row Lit Fest is that same weekend (both days). It always presents a plethora of interesting exhibitors and programs, if you can find them in the event’s labyrinth (watch out for the Minotaur).

And, not finally, but I’m tired, the American Writers Museum is hosting Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair on the 12th, which will feature refreshments, carnival games, and an Adult Spelling Bee, which, I assume, means either dirty words and/or easier ones than the obnoxiously well-prepared kids at the real one have to tackle.

Juan Pastor Trio – Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert – August 25, 2023

Posted on by admin

The Juan Pastor Trio treated attendees to a wonderful last outdoor Noonday Concert of the year. This group was new to me, but I’m already hoping to see Pastor’s larger band, Chinchano, which adds two saxophones to the trio’s bass, piano and drums, at the upcoming Chicago Jazz Festival.

Chinchano is promoted as “Pastor’s modern instrumental jazz group that fuses the traditional North American jazz harmonic palette with exciting rhythmic concepts drawn from Central and South America.” Sounds good to me.

Pastor is Peruvian by birth, I assume from the Chincha Province, based upon his group’s name. Chincha means ocelot in Quechua (an indigenous language spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes), which confuses me because chinchillas, historically, lived in Peru (and Bolivia and Chile), but are rodents, not felines, which makes me think about a different kind of fusion, that of two different orders of mammalia, rodentia and carnivora, which might produce a very atonal product.

Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert – August 18, 2023

Posted on by admin

A 1986 Los Angeles Times review of a Marni Nixon album of George Gershwin songs called it “polished and professional, yet also sparse and dry.” It went on to say that “Nixon’s voice is not rich in its lower registers . . . . and that nearly all the songs . . . ask for more stretching and surging of tempo than the performers [including the pianist] allow.”

We’re talking Marni Nixon, ghost singer for the stars (Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn). So, you’ll excuse me if I say that soprano Kathleen Monson (and her accompanist Riko Higuma) did not provide fascinating rhythm for me in much the same way.

Monson’s voice is beautiful, but not for me. I left this summertime concert with plenty of nothing.

Higuma was given some solo time, including a shortened version of Rhapsody in Blue. This is the third performance of that classic I’ve witnessed this year. I previously raved about Sean Hayes and Michelle Cann. While I found Higuma’s work more entertaining that Monson’s, it didn’t rise to the level of the other two pianists, though, to be fair, they were playing grand pianos and she was playing an upright that may or may not have been made from Legos.