FITZGERALDS SIDEBAR Presents:  THE PAUL HECHT TRIO FREE SHOW!  Dynamic, restless jazz keyboardist and composer Paul Hecht returns to the Sidebar with Ben Dillinger on bass and Gustavo Cortiñas on drums. Hecht has an unusual background: after studying jazz intensively during his education in New England, he veered into literary studies and classical violin, becoming a professor and playing in orchestras and chamber groups in his spare time. His path to professional jazz performance over the last ten years had everything to do with finding himself in Chicago during a period of creative expansion led by a new generation of musicians as willing to innovate as they were wired into the city’s storied living musical traditions. His collaborators this evening have deep ties to various parts of that expansion, and are both accomplished composers and bandleaders in their own right.   Hecht’s first album of original music, Pyrography, was released in April, featuring Cortiñas and Dillinger, along with trumpeter James Davis. Some praise from reviewers: “endlessly rewarding . . . brilliant, uncompromising work” (Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move); “a gem . . . equally comfortable with structured complexity and carefree exploration . . . [Pyrography] honors tradition while creating its own language” (Tim Larsen, Jazz Views). Cortiñas’ latest release, The Crisis Knows No Borders also came out in April. Hecht’s book about the history of English poetry in the late sixteenth century, What Rosalind Likes, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. He writes regularly about the midwestern jazz scene on his Substack, ZLR. Grab dinner before the show at BABYGOLD BARBECUE ***PARKING*** There is rather limited street parking in the area, we recommend arriving by rideshare, bicycle, or rickshaw.   ***AGE RESTRICTIONS*** 21+, Minors admitted with guardian!