Swedish trumpeter Goran Kajfes has been a notable presence on the Scandinavian scene for about 15 years, and while he’s a superb and highly skilled jazz improviser, most of his work has triumphantly existed in the cracks and crevices between genres. He’s probably best known for his key role in Oddjob, an amped-up quintet finding evermore possibilities in the electric music of Miles Davis. While Oddjob remains active—they’re currently at work on their seventh studio album—of late the trumpeter has been making a serious splash with a large band he calls the Subtropic Arkestra....

Jesús “Chuy” García had a good excuse for waving a broom onstage at his election-night party like he was a zealous White Sox fan celebrating a series sweep. It was meant to symbolize a sweep of the electoral kind. The mustachioed congressional candidate had easily won his primary, and his slate of young Latino candidates from the southwest side—Alma Anaya, Beatriz Frausto-Sandoval, and Aaron Ortiz (plus Cook County assessor candidate Fritz Kaegi)—all stood victorious on Tuesday....

It’s a struggle in the wake of the election to write about a new brewpub in a way that makes it seem like it matters. On the day after Trump’s victory, I found myself at a table with a few other despondents at Old Irving Brewery, trying to medicate the malignancy of the Orange Cancer with snifters of high-ABV Imperial Black Ale. The menu is executed by Merges lieutenant Michael Shrader, of the late Urban Union, who’s armed with the most current restaurant weaponry (aka a wood-fired oven)....

For the third summer running, Evanston venue SPACE will bring its eclectic and tuned-in programming out to catch some sun. Its outdoor Out of SPACE music series consists of a lively mix of shows in two four-day blocks, the first in June in the parking lot at Temperance Beer Company (just down the road from SPACE), the second in August at the Canal Shores Golf Course. The August lineup will be announced later this month, but the June shows are going public today—and the artists confirmed so far mix hip-hop and indie Americana the same way last year’s Out of SPACE did....

Greg MacAyeal first encountered John Cage while studying music composition in the late 80s as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Arguably America’s most influential experimental composer, Cage is famous for his 1952 “silent piece” 4’33”, and in the 1950s and ’60s he’d pushed the envelope musically by composing works incorporating silence, indeterminacy, and electronics. He’d taught and researched at UIUC two decades before, from 1967 until ’69, spending most of his time cocreating a mammoth computer-music piece called HPSCHD that premiered in May 1969....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here.

From the late 1960s until the very end of the ’80s, the artist Lee Godie staked her claim on the Art Institute’s steps. She hawked her paintings, drawings, and photographs to museum patrons, students, and passersby on Michigan Avenue. Living on the street by choice, Godie, who passed away in 1994, kept her wardrobe and art supplies in department-store lockers and frequented bus-station photo booths to take self-portraits—an idiosyncratic aspect of her diverse and public practice....

When New Zealand singer-songwriter Jonathan Bree began his solo career in 2013, his creations were almost diametrically opposed to the poppy, upbeat material that he’d crafted in the Brunettes, his longtime project with Heather Mansfield. His first two LPs were melancholy and dour, casting his deep, gloomy, discontented croon in a dark light. But on his 2018 breakthrough and third LP, Sleepwalking (Lil’ Chief), Bree gives his chamber pop a brighter, dreamier, and more intoxicating tone, with nods to 1960s lounge, mod, and French pop....

This time last year, the film-loving farceur behind the Music Box Theatre’s beloved Twitter account—now restored to its former glory after a bogus several-week suspension due to supposed copyright infringement—replied to a tweet from a film fan in a conversation about Christopher Nolan: “Keep your fingers crossed that this is all over in time for TENET in July!” This progress comes after a hellish year for exhibitors who rely on in-person screenings for most or all of their revenue....

Nearly a decade ago, Chicago singer-songwriter Owen Ashworth launched Orindal Records, partly as an outlet for the intimate, cozy indie-pop recordings he makes under the name Advance Base. He’s since transformed the label into a hub for musicians who take a similarly measured, contemplative approach, even when they’re exploring entirely different genres. Orindal’s latest Hideout showcase skews toward folk and rock, and features several of my label favorites, including Philadelphia band Friendship, whose lithe, unhurried folk-rock songs are sometimes so gentle they border on ambient....

The general public loves using long-running Detroit hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse and their fans, better known as Juggalos, as avatars for just about anything convenient to its cause. After Trump narrowly won Michigan, a battleground state, in the 2016 election, I noticed handfuls of Twitter users blaming Juggalos (who, generally speaking, are white and blue-collar) when in fact white folks from all walks of life played a part in securing the state’s electoral votes for that orange buffoon....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, February 16, 2016. Rhymefest no longer working with Kanye, praying for his health Oscar- and Grammy-winning local songwriter and rapper Rhymefest has stopped working with longtime collaborator Kanye West, and says West needs to step away from the public eye and the “yes men” in order to heal his mind and spirit. On Twitter, Rhymefest noted that he’s tried reaching out to West personally without any luck....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday January 19, 2016. If you had yesterday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, welcome back to work. Mother and daughter found dead in NW Indiana Velia Taneff, 86, and her daughter, Lana Taneff, 63, were found dead in Calumet Township with ligature marks on their necks. Both deaths have been ruled homicides. Velia was a former talk radio show host and a “local political activist, pundit, landlord and lifelong Democrat....

Another 90s Halloween Party Dust off your flannel shirt and Doc Martens: it’s a 90s-themed costume party. The night includes a photobooth from Glitter Guts and fly gear from Kokorokoko. Sat 10/29, 9 PM-3 AM, Beauty Bar, 1444 W. Chicago, 312-226-8828, thebeautybar.com/home-chicago. Carmine’s Friday Fright Fest Chicago Woman magazine cohosts this event featuring a costume contest, appetizers, beer, and wine. A portion of the proceeds goes to first responders’ charity the 100 Club of Chicago....

Q: Married guy here. I’m 33, the wife is 31. Our fifth anniversary is next month but we’ve been together for almost eight years. We’ve recently both come out to each other as bi. She tried to tell me a long time ago whereas I came to the realization only recently. We’re both interested in new sexual encounters and this weekend we met up with a male escort. It was my first sexual experience with a man and the first sexual encounter between my wife and another man in eight years ....

Last month at the Winter Jazzfest in New York I saw keyboardist Craig Taborn share his deep love of heavy metal as a member of drummer Dan Weiss’s new Starebaby project—laying down fierce drones and doomesque power chords on synthesizer. At this point, nothing about Taborn ever surprises me—he’s got incredibly broad tastes, and he routinely follows his curiosity down all sorts of holes without ever surrendering his erudite, thoughtful approach or his ability to fit within any ensemble....

Scottish composer Anna Meredith has found a niche working with classical institutions in their efforts to engage new listeners. Her piece “Connect It,” which demonstrates a canon using body percussion and beatboxing—with rhythmic patterns passed around between performers—was part of the BBC’s Ten Pieces program, an endeavor to get kids ages seven to 14 interested in classical music. Her more serious works for the likes of the London Sinfonietta have used similar sonic and performative elements....

The Reader’s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. The mild weather might be a good excuse to go find a snowy owl for yourself.