Most Monday night's Patricia Barber holds down the fort at Green Mill. But Barber is on tour and filling in for her tonight and next Monday is none other than Yoko Noge's Jazz Me Blues. We're biased about Yoko and the pairing of her long-running band of jazz raconteurs with Chicago's most romanticized jazz club are a match made in heaven. You might even see some swing dancers in attendance, since the dance floor will be open. more ›

Now this is pure nostalgia. Back in my bartending days, Mondays were my rent nights, thanks in large part to Yoko Noge's Jazz Me Blues. Yoko Noge, simply put, is a local treasure and one of my dearest friends. The woman came to Chicago from Osaka, Japan, by way of a broken down car on Route 66, solely to learn how to sing and play the blues the way it's done in Chicago. When she was stood up on one gig by her piano player, she decided to learn how to play piano — in her thirties — because she didn't want to be stood up again. Under the steady guidance of stride piano master Erwin Helfer, she became a formidable pianist. But it's her voice, one that seems like it's coming from somewhere other than her tiny body, that's the true revelation. more ›

This weekend brings the 31st installment of the Chicago Jazz Festival, packing Grant Park with its usual solid mix of local, national, and international acts. The Festival is broadly split into daytime and nighttime slates, with the afternoon performances spread over three stages: Jazz on Jackson, the Jazz Heritage Stage, and the first new stage added in a decade, the Young Jazz Lions stage, which will feature high school and college groups from the metropolitan area. Once the clock strikes 5:00 p.m., things will switch over to the Petrillo Music Shell for the headliners. Check out this map for help with navigation. The full schedule is available on the websites of the City of Chicago and the Jazz Institute of Chicago, but make sure to check out the handy-dandy grid that the City provides for the best sense of what's happening where. more ›