Christian Lillinger // The Tomeka Reid Quartet // Chicago Underground Duo

Saturday night’s action gets underway with the return of drummer and composer Christian Lillinger’s ambitious Open Form For Society, a tightly-coiled 10-piece ensemble that navigates complex grids of rhythm and harmony, with no less than five keyboardists – Kaja Draksler, Cory Smythe, Georg Vogel, Elias Stemeseder and Anna D’Errico – exploring the leader’s intricate designs. Early this year acclaimed American jazz critic Nate Chinen predicted this would be “the year of Tomeka Reid”, the Chicago cellist and composer who’s played Jazzfest Berlin as a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Hemphill Stringtet, and with reedist Angelika Niescier. dance! skip! hop!, the fourth album of her long-running quartet with guitarist Mary Halvorson, signals the spotlight belongs to her. The evening concludes with what promises to be a galvanizing performance by CHICAGO UNDERGROUND Duo, the enduring exploratory project of trumpeter Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor.