According to the adage, March “comes in like a lion.” Considering the strength of the weekend’s jazz schedule in Chicago, I’d say that February’s going out with a roar as well.
Starting on the near south side, the widely praised flutist Nicole Mitchell leads her quartet in two sets Friday (tonight) at the L26 Restaurant in the South Loop Hotel at 2600 S. State. The performance marks the second concert in the monthly series sponsored by the Velvet Birdhouse Coalition, which was formed late last year to honor “the tradition, spirit, and vision” of Fred Anderson, the late tenor saxist and founder of the now defunct Velvet Lounge. (The inaugural L26 concert on January 21 featured Corey Wilkes’ band and filled the house.)
Barely slowed by the theft of her instruments in October, the prolific Mitchell continues to forge new and impressive music between intercontinental engagements (Italy in October, Poland in November, Israel earlier this month). Tonight she’ll introduce several of the new pieces she plans to record for an upcoming Delmark Records album, as played by a new band (also making its debut) comprising guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Harrison Bankhead, and drummer Avreeayl Ra. First show starts at 9:30 PM.
Mitchell is a main instigator of the Velvet Birdhouse Coalition, which has already planned its March concert: a birthday tribute to Fred Anderson, which will be cut from the same mold as those held when he was alive. That concert, starring two longtime Anderson cronies – New Orleans saxist Kidd Jordan (now of the World Saxophone Quartet) and storied New York bassist Henry Grimes, as well as several other Anderson collaborators – will take place March 22 at the Jazz Showcase (806 S. Plymouth).
This weekend, however, the Showcase combats the February gloom with some Latin heat, courtesy of the explosive Cuban pianist Chuchito Valdés and his Chicago-based Afro-Cuban Ensemble. Scion of the island’s premier jazz family – his father Chucho and grandfather Bebo (both of them pianists) are Cuban jazz legends – Chuchito has steadfastly developed his own sound by blending aspects of his forbears’ technique. As usual, he leads a dynamic unit through a varied but always exhilarating repertoire drawn from the breadth of Cuba’s rhythmic tradition.
The temperature should also rise tonight at the Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway), when the Orbert Davis Quintet takes the stage. Davis, long among the city’s top trumpeters, has devoted a great deal of his time in recent years to other projects, both musical and otherwise. (The former include his 55-piece Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and its offshoot Chamber Ensemble; among the latter is “Jazz Alive,” his education outreach program that teaches academic skills and life lessons through music.)
In fact, Davis spends so much energy on these pursuits that we rarely get to hear his potent and captivating quintet, with which he recorded two vibrant albums that cemented his reputation in the early 2010s – and this makes their gig tonight such a welcome reunion. The band boasts Ari Brown on tenor and Ryan Cohan on piano, both of whom have blossomed as leaders over the last decade. And bassist Stewart Miller and drummer Ernie Adams make a powerhouse rhythm team, which Davis uses as a springboard for his athletic solos.
Then, on Saturday at 8 PM, saxophonist Cameron Pfiffner’s long day’s journey into night begins.
Pfiffner regularly appears at the Green Mill from 12:30 till 4 AM every Saturday night (Sunday morning, really), co-leading Sabertooth, the longstanding organ quartet. But when the puckish percussionist Matt Wilson had to cancel his originally scheduled appearance at the Green Mill for this Saturday, the club (at (4802 N. Broadway) used the opportunity to arrange for a rare appearance by Marco Polo, Pfiffner's excellent 10-piece band. (This despite what you may have read in today's Chicago Tribune.)
So on Saturday, Pfiffner will clock in early, performing with Marco Polo till midnight, and then with Sabertooth till nearly dawn. Despite the example of their namesake (the globetrotting explorer), Pfiffner’s band is pretty reclusive, venturing out only a couple times a year. So you shouldn’t miss this rare chance to hear Pfiffner’s inventive and winningly executed arrangements, full of jazz flavors and spiced with world-music accents, spider-silk reed writing and sultry blasts from the brass.
There’s another split-bill (sort of) this weekend at Pete Miller’s in Evanston (1557 Sherman Ave.), where saxist and singer Juli Wood leads two distinctly different bands. Tonight, it’s a raucously promising quintet that ties together several strains of the current Chicago scene, assembling trumpeter Larry Bowen, a mainstream ace; trombonist Steve Berry, best known for his work in more experimental ensembles (especially those of the AACM); and Pete Benson, the spectacular organist from Sabertooth (see above). Todd Howell rounds out the band, which should coax some of Wood’s bluesier vocals – and probably some mean work on the baritone sax, as well.
Wood will concentrate more on her lighter horns, alto and tenor, when she returns to Pete Miller’s the next night in more familiar surroundings. She’ll lead the quartet she calls The Jazzmooners, so named because it comprises two life-partnered couples – Wood and drummer Mike Schlick, and the husband-and-wife musicians Kelly Brand on piano and Kelly Sill on bass. Each of Wood’s bands starts at 9 PM.
Finally, Saturday night brings the first of two screenings of If I’m Not Home, a long-awaited documentary about the late Chicago jazz singer Ron Cooper, a once familiar, then shadowy presence in the 70s and 80s. Cooper sang in a luscious, strong baritone, but didn’t rely on his sound alone; he could have stuck to crooning, but his interests led him to vocalese and some occasionally quite wiggy scat improvisation, only an iota of which was ever captured on disc.
Following the 8 PM screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State), three of the film’s principals – producer-director Dustin Grove, vocalist and label owner Joanie Pallatto (who recorded with Cooper), and guitarist Mike Allemana – will take audience questions. Tickets for the Saturday show are apparently in short supply, but the hour-long documentary will screen again on Monday night at 8. (Watch this space Sunday for a review of the film.)
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