Howard Reich

The revered jazz bassist Charlie Haden hopes he can give a brief speech when he picks up his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy the day before the Grammys are broadcast on Feb. 10. But Haden sometimes has difficulty speaking, and...

For decades, the defenders of the status quo have insisted that the Chicago Jazz Festival must remain anchored in Grant Park. They said the dreadful acoustics there were just fine. They said the dilapidated Petrillo Music Shell served the fest well....

To me, a kid growing up in the 1960s and '70s, Skokie seemed like any other suburb, its tidy houses sitting on impeccably manicured lawns. Sure, on Friday nights and Saturday mornings you'd sometimes see Hasidic Jews strolling to and from synagogue....

The story of Skokie and the way it rallied a community, a region and a state to stand up to the racism of neo-Nazism is told once again in a new documentary that takes a fresh look at old wounds. Last week, the film, “Skokie: Invaded But Not...

Out on the dance floor, young couples are throwing off dance steps right out of the Roaring Twenties: the Charleston, the fox trot, the shimmy. Just inches away, up on the bandstand, youthful musicians you'd sooner expect to find covering Radiohead or...

2012 was a characteristically plentiful year in jazz performance, Chicagoans hearing a tremendous range of music. The best concerts, in chronological order: March 1: Tammy McCann at the Jazz Showcase. The majestic Chicago singer designed her four-...

When it comes to playing through pain, Chicago tenor saxophonist Frank Catalano has more experience than most of his colleagues. Eighteen years ago, he severed the middle finger of his right hand while fixing his car, enduring surgery to reattach it and...

No high school in America did more to shape the sound of jazz than a magnificent edifice at 49th Street and Wabash Avenue, on the South Side of Chicago. Singer-pianist Nat "King" Cole, master vocalist Johnny Hartman, piano whiz Dorothy Donegan and...

For those who prefer holiday music that's performed at a high artistic level, this will be a noteworthy weekend – as well as an historic one. Specifically, a Christmas-music tradition in Chicago is coming to an end, while a Hanukkah musical...

The New Year has just begun, but the jazz scene never settles down. Among the weekend's highlights: Rob Mazurek: The enterprising Chicago cornetist has produced remarkable work with his aptly named Exploding Star Orchestra, which conjures a...

A new year brings new hopes for music in Chicago. Here are key resolutions for 2013: Create a concise Cultural Plan. After months of town hall meetings, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events last fall came up with a 48-page wish...

Any president's second term offers another shot at fulfilling dreams that got away the first time around. So while President Barack Obama is strategizing on immigration, unemployment, the deficit and, oh yes, the fiscal cliff, I'd like to add one more...