Jazz
Various Chicago radio stations devote at least a few hours a day to jazz, all of it welcome. But none has programmed the music as consistently as WBEE-AM 1570, which recently marked its 45th anniversary of airing “real jazz” (as station owner Charles R. Sherrell II likes to call it).
To celebrate the occasion, WBEE is presenting one of the legends of the music, Clark Terry, in concert with The Burgess Gardner Orchestra. Though the great trumpeter-fluegelhornist has appeared frequently in Chicago through the decades, his annual New Year’s Eve engagement at the Jazz Showcase didn’t take place last year. So Terry’s Chicago fans are overdue for a show by the man who influenced virtually every trumpeter from Miles Davis onward.
Terry will be backed by The Burgess Gardner Orchestra, a Chicago ensemble that includes veteran alto saxophonist Andy Goodrich. The Houston Person-Etta Jones Quintet will fill out the double bill.
Shows will start at 6:30 and 10 p.m. Saturday in the Center for Performing Arts of Governors State University, Governors Highway and Stuenkel Road, University Park; 708-235-2222.
— Howard Reich
Rock
American Music Festival: Joe Ely, Marcia Ball, Dave Alvin, Alejandro Escovedo and myriad oddballs and underground legends, representing a cross-section of American roots music, make this annual four-day fest the most varied and intimate musical celebration of the July 4 weekend; Friday-July 3 at FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, 708-788-2118.
— Greg Kot
Classical music
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Schubert Marathon: Violinist and violist turned conductor Pinchas Zukerman begins his weeklong residency at the Ravinia Festival by taking part in an all-Schubert program, with guest artists including pianist Claude Frank and cellist Gary Hoffman; 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Martin Theatre; 847-266-5100.
Grant Park Music Festival: Principal conductor Carlos Kalmar leads John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, his affecting response to the AIDs epidemic, at a free concert that also holds Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, with John Browning as soloist; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the Petrillo Music Shell; 312-742-4763.
Zukerman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia: First-chair soloists Alex Klein, oboe, and David McGill, bassoon, are featured at 8 p.m. Friday, while violinist Pamela Frank plays concertos by Bruch and Bach at 8 p.m. Saturday. The summer’s first Steans Institute concerts are at 5:45 both nights in Bennett-Gordon Hall; 847-266-5100.
William Eddins and the CSO: Resident conductor takes charge of an all-Russian program including the Mussorgsky-Ravel “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody, with Jon Kimura Parker as piano soloist; 8 p.m. Saturday; 847-266-5100.
— John von Rhein
Art
Exhibit: “post-hypnotic,” pronounced optical patterns in contemporary painting; closes Sunday; Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; 312-744-6630.
“Cameraless Wonders”: Thirty modern and contemporary photograms from the museum’s permanent collection; through Nov. 5; Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; 312-443-3600.
“Judith Geichman: Recent Paintings”: Abstract gestural paintings by the Chicago artist; through July 19; Evanston Art Center, 2603 Sheridan Rd., Evanston; 847-465-5300.
— Alan G. Artner
Jazz
Maynard Ferguson: The high-energy trumpeter leads his Big Bop Nouveau Band in two shows: 6 p.m. Sunday at Elmhurst College Mall, Elmhurst (630-617-6100), and 8 p.m. Monday at Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave. (312-670-2473).
John McLean: A thoroughly original guitarist, McLean will front a quintet; 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; 773-878-5552.
Orbert Davis: Leading a sextet, the trumpeter will offer a “Tribute to Louis Armstrong”; 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; 312-744-6630.
Von Freeman, Ed Petersen: The two mighty tenor saxophonists will reprise their “Battle of the Saxes” sessions; 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; 773-878-5552.
— Howard Reich
Film
“L’Humanite”: When a movie wins three major awards at the Cannes Film Festival, as Bruno Dumont’s “L’Humanite” (or “Humanity”) did in 1999, it’s usually quickly imported to the U.S. But the offbeat “L’Humanite” is only now getting its Chicago theatrical premiere. A long, harshly realistic, utterly unsentimental look at modern French provincial life, Dumont’s film portrays a murder and the futile efforts to solve it by a local policeman (Emmanuel Schotte), a kind, introverted man also haplessly in love with his sluttish factory worker neighbor (Severine Caneele). Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; 733-281-4114.
— Michael Wilmington
Theater
“1776”: The stirring, vastly entertaining musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in a rousing revival; through July 16 at Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace; 630-530-0111.
— Richard Christiansen