Monday nights used to cause anxiety attacks among jazz listeners, since so many of Chicago’s clubs simply took the evening off.
In recent months, however, club owners seem to have realized that hard-core audiences need to hear live music every night of the week. Thus Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, the city’s top presenter of mainstream attractions, not long ago began featuring William Russo’s superb Chicago Jazz Ensemble on alternate Mondays.
Now HotHouse, Marguerite Horberg’s sumptuous new space in the South Loop, has jumped into the Monday-night sweepstakes as well. That’s a welcome development, in part because the room is so spacious, visually appealing and user friendly that almost any excuse to visit the place will suffice.
For the month of August, however, HotHouse is presenting a Monday-night double-bill that would be worth hearing in almost any setting.
The main draw is Malachi Thompson’s “47th Street Jazz Revue,” a somewhat grandiloquent name for a series of performances by Thompson’s exceptional instrumental trio. The title, of course, refers to one of the great crossroads in jazz, the Sutherland Show Lounge, which was located at 47th Street and Drexel Boulevard.
Thompson, more than anyone, has been deeply committed to restoring this site as a focal point for jazz performances, which is why he has dubbed this evening the “47th Street Jazz Revue.” If the show isn’t precisely a revue (or at least it wasn’t on Monday evening), it certainly evokes the spirit of experimentation and innovation that has defined South Side jazz in general, Thompson’s work in particular.
Listeners often hear Thompson leading large ensembles, such as his Africa Brass and Freebop bands, so it’s something of a revelation to hear him work in a more intimate, trio setting. The clarity of Thompson’s tone, the force of his ideas and the ingenuity of his improvisations are all the more apparent when he has no other horns to contend with.
Throughout Thompson’s first set Monday evening, listeners had to be struck not only by the man’s technical control and tonal brilliance but also by the sheer musical variety and intellectual depth of his playing. Whether he was ignoring traditional Western harmony or working within sophisticated chord progressions, whether he was playing meterless rhythms or riding a vivid rhythmic backbeat, he produced lines of considerable poetry and eloquence.
He benefited greatly, though, from the dynamic playing of Ajaramu on drums and Aaron Johnson on bass, both accommodating mercurial changes of mood, tone, tempo, meter and musical vocabulary.
For listeners who prefer their musicmaking somewhat less provocative, the HotHouse Monday-night bill opens with Yoko Noge’s “Jazz Me Blues.”
No one is going to accuse Noge of venturing into uncharted musical territory–on the contrary, the singer-pianist seems to revel in reaffirming acoustic blues and mainstream jazz traditions. To her credit, Noge has gathered around her some of Chicago’s more formidable jazz improvisers.
Certainly any ensemble that features tenor saxophonist Sonny Seals and trombonist John Watson in the front line has a great deal going for it. With Clark Dean providing sweet melodic counterpoint on soprano saxophone, the band offers a straightforward view of familiar repertoire.
Only in an exquisitely unconventional room such as HotHouse, however, would a nostalgic group such as Noge’s open for a firebrand such as Thompson.
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Malachi Thompson’s `47th Street Jazz Revue’ and Yoko Noge’s `Jazz Me Blues’
When: 7:30 p.m. Mondays in August
Where: HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive, Chicago
Call: 312-362-9707
