Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Two of the best-known groups to have featured local reedist Mars Williams will perform over the next two days. This evening at the Hideout the NRG Ensemble, the wild group once led by free-jazz icon and endearing nutjob Hal Russell, reconvenes for one of its sporadic “Hal the Weenie” Halloween shows, named after a favorite song from its vast repertoire. The lineup includes mainstays Williams, Brian Sandstrom (bass, guitar), Kent Kessler (bass), and Steve Hunt (drums) along with new recruits Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Dave Rempis (reeds). Between sets Yakuza front man and saxophonist Bruce Lamont will spin what the schedule is calling “Tunes of Terror.”
Theresa Andersson, Hummingbird, Go! (Basin Street)Marcos Valle, Samba “Demais” (Odeon)Frida Hyvönen, Silence is Wild (Secretly Canadian)Blitzen Trapper, Furr (Sub Pop)Michael Bates’s Outside Sources, A Fine Balance (Between the Lines)
