Third Coast Creatives

The post-holiday weeks can be a challenge to even the hardiest of Chicagoans.  Readjusting back into your “normal” schedule, somehow hampered by a few extra pounds that appeared from nowhere can be a challenge.  Add in the chill of the January wind and it makes you want to stay home and hibernate until the annual call for the pitchers and catchers.  Cruel as Chicago’s winters can be, the City offers surprise treats to those who dare to search for them.  How about City Winery, the unique and intimate facility in the West Loop that pairs delicious foods and wines with fantastic live music.  There are few better pairings to City Winery’s gastronomical offerings than Paris Combo , an eclectic musical group based in Paris France.  The musically devious Parisians will be showcasing songs from their latest studio release, Tako Tsubo , as well as favorites from their previous six albums.  Paris Combo brings their 2019 U.S. Tour to City Winery for one nig...

Even as a young girl, Alexandra Jackson knew she had big shoes to fill.   Her father was Atlanta’s first African-American mayor, the late Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr.   Jackson’s mother is businesswoman and NPR personality Valerie Richardson Jackson.   Opera also played a role in her family, given that Jackson’s great aunt was Mattiwilda Dobbs, the Africa-American coloratura soprano, who was one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.   But Jackson, besides being one of the nicest people I have ever interviewed, has demonstrated she is more than capable of filling those shoes.   Jackson learned piano as a child and studied classical music, but it was the music she was surrounded by at home that truly influenced her.   “My father would play the Blind Boys of Alabama then move on to Take 6,” she says.   “My mother loved Johnny Hartman and Phoebe Snow.   I was into Earth Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, an...