The last-and largest-entry in the festival devoted to the 30th anniversary of the artists collective Fluxus opens Saturday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 237 E. Ontario St., filling galleries with more than 1,000 objects in a celebration blurring the line between art and life. The event promises to put the others-at Northwestern’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois and the Arts Club of Chicago-in perspective.
Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
Chamber Pro Musica honors the World Columbian Exposition centenary with a concert featuring works from the 1890s, plus three premieres. The program, 2 p.m. Sunday in the Art Institute’s Fullerton Hall, holds Brahms’ sublime Clarinet Quintet and Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel.” The Chicago premiere of Rami Levin’s “Uncharted Waters” and world premieres of Tannenbaum’s “Off Center” and Brophy’s “Seduire c’est tout” complete the bill.
John von Rhein
JAZZ
Joe Williams, the formidable jazz-blues singer, sounds more magisterial with each season, which augurs well for his coming engagement at the Jazz Showcase in the Blackstone Hotel, 636 S. Michigan Ave. The former Count Basie Band singer came of age, musically, on the South Side of Chicago, so this weeklong appearance, beginning Tuesday, should represent a joyous homecoming.
Howard Reich
ROCK
Few bands command a stage as convincingly as the Jesus Lizard. Before recording their fourth album for Touch & Go, the Chicago quartet performs Saturday at the Vic. Singer David Yow has been known to set his pants on fire while in the thrall of his band’s mighty din. Guitarist Casper Brotzmann, a fave of the band’s Duane Denison, will open.
THEATER
Starting Tuesday, there’s a new reason to see “Crazy for You,” the ultra-energy musical using Gershwin brothers’ music at the Auditorium Theatre: Ann B. Davis joins the cast as Mother. Boomers remember her as Schultze on “The Bob Cummings Show” in the ’50s, but in the late ’60s she scored even bigger as Alice on “The Brady Bunch.” Her presence may give one of the show’s few routine portrayals new punch.
Sid Smith
