Three is-it-football-season-yet reasons to dodge some Decepticons to spend a beautiful evening at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park…

1. I love Tortoise for many reasons, one of them being that they love their hometown. Either they’re playing incredible shows in Chicago like the one last February at Lincoln Hall or they’re playing with other incredible musicians such as when John McEntire joined Broken Social Scene at Pitchfork Music Festival. Well, tonight is no different as the band joins some of Chicago’s top jazz players including cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, multi-reedist from 8 Bold Souls Ed Wilkerson Jr., sax player Greg Ward, flautist Nicole Mitchell and pianist Jim Baker to kick off the Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series.

2. The Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak explains how even though Tortoise are world class improvisers, there isn’t much of that going on tonight.

Per Margasak:
…won’t merely be stepping up in turn to improvise solos—they were invited to rehearsals to develop their own parts and help shape the work.

So, tonight we’ll hear fully formed pieces that will be a collision of post-rock and jazz? Count me in.

3. Sure, they won’t be playing this song tonight, but I think this video is worth a repost in case the two reasons above have not swayed you to make the trip over to Millennium Park on this crisp, nearly cool, summer day. Here’s Tortoise at Lincoln Hall on February 20 of this year absolutely killing it with their song “Salt The Skies”. Enjoy:

6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 29. Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. All Ages. FREE!