Sun Ra, an eclectic and beyond-prolific musician, has deep roots in Chicago -- his tenure in the city during the 1960s led to some of his best recordings.Yet shortly after moving from Chicago Sun Ra became significantly more experimental, with larger percussion sections, longer improvisation and a wider use of electronic technologyThis brings us...

The late 70s found Herbie Hancock as prolific as ever, exploring new directions to take his music with collaborations, solo piano recordings and still more funky jazz releases. Though the 80s would bring his disco-infused, vocoder-heavy pop era, 77 found him simply stretching out the sound of his classic releases.Add Weather Reports bass mastermind Jaco...

Allen Toussaints New Orleans R&B recordings set a template for generations of blues-influenced musicians to come. But after peaking in popularity in the 70s, the 80s found the legendary singer and pianist dropped from his Warner Brothers contract, working on soundtracks for musicals and, more importantly, focusing on live performances.Thats what makes...

This Park West recording marked the first date of Lowell George's last tour, the singer's untimely death to follow by precisely two weeks.Having been central in Little Feat disbanding months prior, this was George's first tour without the band. The set contained a number of songs from Thanks, I'll Eat It Here, George's only...

We never did give Lou Reed a proper eulogy here on the site, but I guess it's only fitting since his is the sort of presence that hovers around a lot of the music featured here, but is never quite front in and center. Best way I can give him the spotlight here is by...

I know you can't keep score when it comes to live music, but I've always kind of considered one of my early concerts a badge of honor. On July 4th, 1991, as a recent high school grad, I managed to trek downtown to catch what turned out to be the "final" concert by The Replacements at...

The Chicago Jazz Festival always has a great lineup.  But one of the biggest grabs in their history was Miles Davis in 1990, a year before he died at the age of 65.From the very beginning of his career, Miles had sent audiences through the stylistic wringer, diving deep in to all sorts of heavy...

 If this was a Phish show, it'd be forever known and praised as the "Take Me Out To The Ballgame Show" -- with Anastasio throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley that afternoon, he decided to weave teases of the ballpark staple throughout this long one-set show with Gordon and The Duo in the...

Note: I originally started writing this last year for this show's 15th anniversary, but couldn't squeeze it out on time. Alas, here it is a year later.This post is to commemorate an anniversary, but the anniversary that was on my mind on May 8, 1997 was the 20th birthday of one of the most celebrated Grateful...

I guesspermanenceisn't something one should expect from Ryan Adams, the notoriously mercurial singer songwriter. But I wish we could have the mid-to-late 00's heyday of the Cardinals back, where they played this otherworldly country-punkish-jamband music that simply sounds like nothing else. Or at least get to rewind to savor those years a little bit more....