Reviews

No shortage of top talent in spotlight this weekend

Published January 21, 2006 By Howard Reich, Tribune arts critic

Thursday night's opening augured well for this year's event, with a serenely beautiful performance by Chicago singer Kurt Elling and saxophonist Jim Gailloreto's Jazz String Quintet. Though only a small ensemble held the stage of Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center, the intricacy, detail and innovation of Gailloreto's writing evoked the sense of a chamber orchestra. Many jazz musicians have written arrangements for strings, but Gailloreto's stood out, in part because of the sheer amount of musical information he packed into each piece. Where lesser composers use the strings simply to play slow-moving chords or double the melody line, Gailloreto offered clever, four-part string writing. Elling joined the fray on several numbers, his voice a warm and supple foil to the quintet's often prickly, provocative accompaniments. To hear Elling caress the phrases of Kenny Dorham's "Fair Weather" and unspool the long, sinuous lines of Fred Hersch's "The Sleepers" was to savor a less hysterical facet of the singer's work than listeners are accustomed to.

Discs reflect city's evolving music

Published August 3, 2004 By Howard Reich, Tribune arts critic

Anyone who follows Chicago jazz recognizes Jim Gailloreto among a younger generation of tenor proselytizers, his beefy tone and freewheeling solos indebted to Chicago's "tough tenor" tradition in general, Freeman's model in particular. Yet on "Shadow Puppets" (Naim), Gailloreto leads his Split Decision band in some of the most uncharacteristic music of his career, essentially subverting just about everything listeners have come to expect from him. From the open spaces and ethereal gestures of the opening track, "Other White Meat," to the mystical, Eastern contemplations of "So Sari," Gailloreto clearly revels in confounding expectations. That he engaged virtuoso pianist Laurence Hobgood to play an electric Rhodes piano -- and to offer minimalist, atmospheric statements on it -- underscores the point. The music may not be quite as thrilling as Gailloreto's full-throated statements in concert and on previous recorded work, but there's enough sly understatement on tunes such as "Cheshire Cat" and "End of the Line" to make this disc required listening for Gailloreto devotees. Finally, his profoundly introspective deconstruction of Billy Strayhorn's " A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" brings new meaning to every note of an already ineffably expressive melody.