The Weekender | Labor Day Weekend | September 1–5, 2011

Thursday 1

Randy Weston & The Chicago Jazz Ensemble
6:30pm, Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, FREE!
Weston and the CJE close out the Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series and open the Millennium Park portion of the Chicago Jazz Festival. Together, they explore the intersections of jazz and African folk first mined by Weston and the late Melba Liston.

9pm, Schuba's, $8
Newcomer Redgrave celebrates its debut 7-inch, a lil' slab of sultry blues-rock featuring contributions from Califone’s Tim Rutili. Support comes from Coupleskate, which features TOC's own Martha Williams on drums.

9:30pm, Empty Bottle, $8 advance/$10 day-of
Austin combo Balmorhea, a group that inhabits the haunted hinterlands found among post-rock, folk instrumentals and chamber music, shares songs from a recent album, Constellations.

10pm, Spy Bar, $20 (free before midnight with RSVP at clubtix.com)
The Tunisian-born German may spend his time at the epicenter of the techno scene, rubbing elbows with Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos, but, hip-hop or no, there's New York spirit in him thanks to those rap days. This gives him a unique flair in the booth while he drops tracks swelling with throbbing bass and rhythmic snare chatter.