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If you are like me, April 15, 2025 is a sad day. All my life, I’ve been paying taxes and right now, it feels like I am forced into buying a product I don’t like very much. But never mind — there is great music to carry us through this expensive experience. Nothing can soothe the savage heart like a beautiful, free violin recital and there is one on Tax Day at Bienen’s Galvin Concert Hall. The Moon Jazz series at Prairie Moon continues with a trio led by a fine saxophonist. And SPACE will host an up-and-coming, genre-hopping band on Thursday night.
Live music will save us all.
Tuesday, April 15
• Ayeong Jeong, violin, graduate student recital, 8:30 p.m. at Galvin Recital Hall, Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, 70 Arts Circle Drive. Jeong is a doctoral student at Bienen. She is an excellent violinist and has studied with NU’s violin professor Gerardo Ribeiro. Jeong’s program will include Franz Schubert’s Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (Grand Duo) and César Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major. She will be accompanied by pianist Dong-Wan Ha. Free.
Wednesday, April 16
• Matt Muñeses Trio, 9 p.m. at Prairie Moon, 1635 Chicago Ave. After Muñeses earned a master’s degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, he came back to the Chicago area to launch his career. He has been playing, writing music and teaching saxophone for 12 years or so and has played at the Green Mill and Andy’s Jazz Club (two of Chicago’s top jazz venues). Muñeses is part of the small community of Filipino jazz musicians in Chicago. He will be backed by two veteran jazz musicians, Clark Sommers on bass and Dana Hall on drums. Muñeses is a lyrical player who writes wistfully beautiful compositions. $7.
Thursday, April 17
• Improvement Movement with Outronaut, 8 p.m. at SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave. Improvement Movement is a band consisting of four heavy-hitting musicians from Atlanta. These players are all multi-instrumentalists and songwriters, and they describe their music as “vocal-heavy, indie psych-rock.” Perhaps, but to my ears, they sound a bit like a tastier, funkier version of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with some Lake Steet Dive tossed into the mix. This band’s music is infectious and incredibly well-crafted. Their vocal harmonies are absolutely mind-blowing! Atlanta is an underappreciated hotbed of popular music, from hip hop to Southern rock. This quartet has absorbed the local influences, and they aren’t afraid to add intense syncopation, key modulations and shifting tempos to their music.The group apparently has a rotating cast of characters, but the musicians generally include Tony Aparo (drums and vocals), Zach Pyles (keyboards and vocals), Marshall Ruffin (bass and vocals), and Clark Hamilton (guitar and vocals). Improvement Movement has released two albums; the most recent, Slump, dropped about one year ago. The opening act is Chicago-based Outronaut. This band claims to play “Psymphonic surf-noir crime-jazz,” whatever that is. I do hear the surf rock influence and some dark heavy metal stuff — it sounds great! $15.
Local music roundup: Best bets for April 15-17 is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
