Ravinia 2023 Issue 5

PAVILION 8:00 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2023 JETHRO TULL The Seven Decades JETHRO TULL Born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, and coming of age in Blackpool, England, Ian An- derson was a student of fine art before strik- ing out on a musical career. Though known around the world as a progressive rock band, Jethro Tull was formed in 1962 via the merger of two UK blues groups: McGregor’s Engine and the John Evan Band, of which Anderson was a member. Widely recognized as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, An- derson began experimenting with the instru- ment only a short time before Jethro Tull’s first album was recorded, and he has since ex- panded his acoustic palette to include several ethnic flutes and whistles as well as guitars and mandolins, providing the sound textures that made Tull’s repertoire unique. More than 30 studio and live albums were recorded by Tull between those blues beginnings and the group’s 2011 hiatus—1968’s debut This Was led to the first of more than a dozen gold-sellers, 1969’s Stand Up , and yearly releases in the 1970s featuring iconic tracks like “Locomotive Breath” and“Bungle in the Jungle.” Hits like The Broadsword and the Beast and Crest of a Knave followed in the ’80s, and the ’90s wrapped with Catfish Rising , Roots to Branches , and J-Tull Dot Com . Anderson cre- ated four solo albums in between those discs: Walk Into Light (1983); a flute instrumental, Divin- ities , for EMI Classical (1995); and two acoustic collections of songs, The Secret Language of Birds (2000) and Rupi’s Dance (2003). Long resisting a follow-up to Tull’s seminal Thick as a Brick , Anderson was motivated by an influx of younger audiences at his solo concerts to create Thick as a Brick 2—Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? in 2012. Building off the 1972 release, the new album followed the fictitious character’s journey toward kismet-karma. Anderson subsequently recorded the solo albums Homo Erraticus (2014) and The String Quartets (2017), which was cre- ated in collaboration with the Carducci String Quartet, before returning to the studio with his Jethro Tull bandmates—reunited in 2017—to create 2022’s The Zealot Gene . The present lineup quickly reconvened to produce RökFlöte , which was released in April. Jethro Tull first appeared at Ravinia in 2000 and tonight makes his fifth appearance at the festival. PAVILION 7:00 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2023 KENNY LOGGINS: THIS IS IT! HIS FINAL TOUR YACHT ROCK REVUE –Intermission– KENNY LOGGINS YACHT ROCK REVUE With an extensive wardrobe of white belts and polyester shirts, Yacht Rock Revue ful- ly embodies the sound and style of the ’70s and ’80s, even though the group began some 2,000 miles from open ocean. Friends since the fourth grade in suburban Indiana and later Indiana University classmates, Nick Niespodziani and Pete Olson formed the band Y-O-U in the late ’90s and escaped to Atlanta. For a club gig one night, they decid- ed on a setlist of so-called yacht rock—a term they’ve since made their trademark meta- phorically and literally. Playing some 120 shows a year across the country for now more than a decade, headlining venues from Web- ster Hall in New York to the Wiltern in Los Angeles, Yacht Rock Revue’s seven members are all dads in their 40s now, so last year they fulfilled a sort-of “midlife crisis,” reached beyond the trib- ute-band zeitgeist, and released their first album—a set of 10 original songs. The band brought the collection, Hot Dads In Tight Jeans , to producer Ben Allen—who’s worked with Gnarls Bar- kley, Animal Collective, and Neon Indian—to add polish fitting their modern spirit in the vein of Phoenix and Air. “Step,” the record’s first single, recalls combinations of falsettos and grooving bass ala the Bee Gees and Steely Dan’s “Peg,” and Niespodziani and Olson even co-wrote a song, “Big Bang,” with yacht rock master MatthewWilder, who scored a massive hit in 1983 with “Break My Stride.” There’s humor across tracks like “Bad Tequila,” “Another Song About California,” and “The Doobie Bounce” as well, and the group continues to add new songs to their live setlist beyond the Tight Jeans tracks. Yacht Rock Revue made its Ravinia debut in 2021 and is appearing at the festival for a third straight season. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 27