"Glenn Kotche is not your average rock-and-roll percussionist." So says the Chicago Sun-Times in its review of Glenn's joint concert on Tuesday with new-music ensemble eighth blackbird at Chicago's Harris Theater in Millennium Park. And, continues writer Wynne Delacoma in the Sun-Times, the combined bill created "a vastly above-average night in the concert hall."

Delacoma describes the program as "a beguiling mix of Kotche solos, Kotche collaborations with eighth blackbird and two pieces, by Frederick Rzewski and Kotche, for eighth blackbird alone," calling the performers "kindred musical souls," mild in temperament, perhaps, but "as fierce as any garage band or chamber players hurtling through a late Beethoven string quartet."

On a program that featured pieces ranging "from subtle lyricism to raw ferocity," says the reviewer, Kotche's new Double Fantasy "was full of quietly lush moments." Among "other high points," Delacoma concludes, "were Kotche’s hard-driving solo piano arrangement of 'The Corner,' a song by Chicago rapper Common, and his almost hallucinatory percussion solo, 'Monkey Chant.'"

You can listen to Glenn's take on the famous Balinese Monkey Chant on his album Mobile. You can hear the original chant on which it was based on the Nonesuch Exlorer series album Bali: Gamelan & Kecak.

Read the complete concert review at suntimes.com. Glenn will next perform with Kronos Quartet in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Friday, December 5.

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Chicagoist's editors faced a conundrum in deciding how to spend their Tuesday night but thankfully "realized just how foolish we would be to pass up a chance to see what would probably be a one-time only event with Glenn Kotche joining forces with modern classicists eighth blackbird ..." It was a decision clearly well made:

Sure enough we were rewarded with a stellar performance including a jaw dropping solo rendition of "Monkey Chant" by Kotche and a vertiginous reading of Frederic Rzewski's "Les Moutons de Panurge" by eighth blackbird that knocked the audience on its collective ass.

The site describes Glenn's aforementioned arrangement of "The Corner" as "revelatory" and lauds the entire event as "a truly remarkable evening." Read more at chicagoist.com.

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Glenn's Wilco band-mate Jeff Tweedy, a long-time friend and supporter of Barack Obama, has offered the New York Times some insight on how Chicago, hometown both to the band and to the President-elect, is reacting to the election and the new-found focus it has brought the city.

"I think people really do enjoy the idea that we’re living in the center of the world all of the sudden," Jeff tells the Times. "There have been all these prevailing stereotypes, and people don’t know how big and urban Chicago actually is. People think of it as being in a cornfield."

The article "A New Wind Is Blowing in Chicago," can be found at nytimes.com.