Word to the wise among those wooing on Valentine’s Day: Say it with music.
In one sense, of course, every day has elements of Valentine’s Day for music fans: the vast majority of pop material – including the Great American Songbook, which still supplies so much source material for jazz improvisers – has always focused on love in all its glory and misery.
But I doubt that explanation will get you off the hook if your dreamboat expects something out of the ordinary on Tuesday night. So, here are a few suggestions for how to make Valentine’s Day memorable for your sentimental, swinging sweetheart.
The top draw has to be the Symphony Center show that brings the intrepid vocal star (and incipient radio personality; see below) Kurt Elling back to Chicago for one night. Elling’s no-holds-barred ventures into vocalese lyrics and scat improvisation – along with the often stunning arrangements and reharmonizations he cooks up with musical director pianist Laurence Hobgood – have earned him plaudits as the outstanding jazz vocalist of our time.
But Elling is also a devastating singer of ballads and love songs; in fact, it was his lush romantic outing Dedicated To You that won him his first GRAMMY®, after he’d received nominations for each of his previous seven discs. And that’s the side of Elling you’ll find on display Tuesday night in the program he calls Passion World.
Elling debuted this program in 2009 in New York; for that concert he added the mesmerizing French accordionist Richard Galliano to his regular group. Sadly, we won’t have the advantage of Galliano’s wizardry in Chicago. But Elling will fill that absence with two other soloists: the popular violinist Regina Carter and the lesser known Anat Cohen (especially revered for her clarinet work), whose chosen instruments each contain elements of the accordion’s reedy, plaintive timbre.
As “special guests,” Carter and Cohen will presumably get most of the solo spotlight, but don’t kid yourself: sharing the stage with Hobgood and Chicago guitarist John McLean – now a regular member of Elling’s touring band – they’ll work to earn it. (McLean in particular has made something of a secondary career of accompanying vocalists, exploiting a voluptuary tenderness that's rarely heard.)
The show starts at 8 PM at Symphony Center, 230 S. Michigan. And after this concert, if you don’t wake up happy Wednesday, you might want to reassess your choice of companion.
(By the way, if you can’t wait till Tuesday to hear Elling, tune in the NPR hit Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! this weekend, when Elling takes his turn as the celebrity contestant in the “Not My Job” segment of the show. It’s heard in Chicago at 10 AM Saturday at 91.5 FM. And Elling’s name could well get the call Sunday afternoon during the 2012 GRAMMY Awards’ pre-telecast ceremonies, streamed live at Grammy.com, where his album The Gate vies for a statuette in the Jazz Vocal category.)
Tickets for Elling’s show run between $40 and $55. If that strains the budget, you’ll find an excellent lower-priced alternative at the Jazz Showcase (806 S. Plymouth), when Chicago vocalists Saalik Ahmad Ziyad and Sarah Marie Young present two Valentine-themed sets at 8 and 10, with a trio anchored by the marvelously resourceful drummer Makaya McCraven.
Young had a stellar 2011, capped by her winning the international vocal competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Meanwhile, Ziyad spent the year significantly expanding and refining his approach, which features a hearty instrument and an avid willingness to experiment (as indicated by his frequent work in AACM ensembles).
But together they provide more than the sum of their considerable talents. I heard their very first showcased collaboration a year or so ago, and even though it was a public debut, it showed enough polish, and more than enough promise. Modeling themselves after vocal duos that extend from Sarah Young & Billy Eckstine to Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – and thus, material ranging from classic jazz to 60s soul – Young and Ziyad found a lovely sweet spot where their timbres and phrasing twined.
They’ve had plenty of time to perfect this duology, in which their onstage personas evoke their playful offstage friendship. Set them loose on an evening of love songs and I don’t see where you can go wrong. And late Wednesday, Ziyad informed me that tenor saxist Ari Brown has been added to the set, which just ups the ante.
One more Valentine of note: vocalist Spider Saloff offers love songs of all stripes at Katerina’s (1920 W. Irving Park), accompanied by pianist Jeremy Kahn. Saloff’s “cabaret cred” – she rightfully inhabits the top echelon of Chicago’s small cabaret community – often undercuts her place as a jazz interpreter. It shouldn’t: with Saloff, like many other singers, her success lies with investing each of these genres with something from the other.
Kahn’s smart and sensitive piano work knits it all together, making this another attractive amatory option – especially so if you believe that that the heart’s route lies through the stomach. (The Katerina’s light menu, centered on Mediterranean cuisine, is always recommended.) Saloff's Valentine Concert begins at 7:30 Tuesday night.
Finally, if you absolutely refuse to head out on Valentine’s Day, the least you can do is grab hold of the new, just-in-the-nick-of-time release from Chicago pianist-romancer-raconteur Bradley Williams and vocalist Gingi Lahera. Entitled Personality, it dropped barely two weeks ago, and Williams has positioned it as a “musical gift for lovers . . . lovers of clever words of romance, humor, and the bigger picture!”
His e-mail’s ancillary references to “Bogie & Bacall,” “Ella & Louis,” and “Burns & Allen” give a fuller idea of the ground covered – from cinematic sex to musical affection to screwball comedy.
And if that doesn’t describe love, what does?
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