Wee Pandemic Present Packs a Super Sweet Punch

One you didn’t get the chance to hear live nearly enough even before the lockdown and the other was completely unknown until Friday night.  Thankfully, the post showing them in concert together will stay live for at least a few more weeks, giving a greater number of people the chance to enjoy two wonderful musical artists; Chicago’s own Tammy McCann and the sensational vibraphonist Joe Locke.

The Music Institute of Chicago’s foray into the virtual entertainment space on June 5^th with their new Indoor Voices series lets musicians and vocalists show how interesting they are as people as well as display their musical excellence.

Fiona Queen, the Chicago Music Institute’s Director of Performance Activities, welcomes artists to the organization’s Zoom connection every Friday to talk about where we all find ourselves these days and how the artists are adapting to the inability to perform before an audience.  Then the format changes and videos roll showing her guests performing in the Music Institute’s compact jewel of a performance space, Nichols Hall on Chicago Ave. in Evanston

McCann and Locke couldn’t be in more different circumstances as the country swirls and swoons in corona crisis and protests.   A little anxious but steadfast, Ms. McCann finds herself hunkered down on Chicago’s South Side while Locke is happy he got out of New York City about a year ago and settled down in a little Jersey schoolhouse. Despite the differences in their surroundings, once the conversation slipped into memories of working together last year and the power of music to sooth and lead, the three-way chat turned into a serenade on the joy of being a part of such a vital community and the pleasures of performing on Nichols acoustically sublime stage.

The pair’s rendition of The Thought of You performed last Fall at Nichols is smooth, a tad delicate and features a delightfully retooled arrangement drenched in subtlety and sophistication.  But it was Locke’s marvelous performance at the Lionel Hampton festival, also last year, that set the rockets blasting and lit up sky in blazing melody.