Reader’s Choice Peven Everett

Chicago’s most prolific and talented contemporary soul artist should be a superstar, not a cult artist. Peven Everett’s had couple of careers in music already: a former trumpet prodigy, he was discovered by singer Betty Carter and recruited by Wynton Marsalis, grew disillusioned with the mainstream jazz scene in New York, and went on to write some house classics with Roy Davis. But for most of this decade he’s been a one-man neo-soul machine, churning out dozens of DIY CDs on which he plays every single instrument. Unfortunately his insistence on handling every aspect of his career, right down to xeroxing the CD covers, has relegated him to underground oddity: his CDs are available only at Dusty Groove and Dr. Wax and via peven.blogspot.com. In 2002 the LA label ABB released a great compilation of material from his self-released albums, but since then he’s refused to work with anyone else. His latest disc, Sincerely Yours . . . is another gem that like most of his work could benefit from outside production and some paring down, but Everett seems intent on doing it his way. myspace.com/studioconfession, peven.blogspot.com. —Peter Margasak

Readers’ Choice Johnny Drummer

Fri 9 PM and Sat 10 PM, Lee’s Unleaded Blues (see below), johnnydrummermusic.com.

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