Chicago-based saxophonist Jimmy Farace and his quartet will perform two sets to celebrate the release of his album Big Shoulders, Big Sounds. Drawing on the baritone lineage and the Chicago scene, the album balances tradition and risk—big sound, big improvisation, and deeply personal originals alongside a few grateful nods to the past.

Band Members:
Jimmy Farace - Baritone Saxophone
Kenny Reichert - Guitar
Clay Schaub - Bass
Devin Drobka - Drums

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From an early age, Jimmy Farace has been captivated by the beauty and expressive power of the baritone saxophone. With an unwavering belief in the instrument’s ability to tell profound musical stories, Farace has already earned praise from some of jazz’s finest voices. "Jimmy Farace’s playing and writing are the mark of someone who demands the attention of a wide audience!" says saxophonist Walter Smith III, while baritone legend Gary Smulyan describes his tone as “deeply emotional, mature, and his sound simply gorgeous.” Based in Chicago, Farace is quickly becoming recognized as an up-and-coming voice in jazz. Farace has performed and recorded with a wide range of acclaimed artists, including Sharel Cassity, Jeff Campbell, Scott Hesse, Scott Burns, Matt Ulery and Ethan Philion. As a leader, he has graced Chicago stages including the Green Mill, Andy’s Jazz Club, the Hungry Brain, Constellation, and Evanston SPACE. His groups have toured nationally at venues including Café Vivace, The Bop Stop, Con Alma, and Pausa Art House.

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Big Shoulders, Big Sounds is a declaration of intent. Following his 2025 debut Hours Fly, Flowers Die, Jimmy Farace strips things down to a pianoless trio and steps into the full, unforgiving light: just baritone saxophone, bass, and drums. Joined by two of Chicago’s most trusted musicians—Clark Sommers and Dana Hall—Farace makes a record about risk, lineage, and the simple thrill of seeing how much music three people can make together.

The title nods to Chicago’s famous “big shoulders,” but also to the giants of the baritone saxophone whose work made this music possible. You can hear the lyric clarity of Gerry Mulligan, the deep soul and edge of Charles Davis, and the broader tradition that stretches from Billy Strayhorn to Sammy Fain. At the same time, this is very much a personal statement. Farace’s originals—“Cloud Splitter,” “Prophetic Dreams,” “DST,” “Decorah’s Dance,” and “Three Headed Dragon”—are built around small emotional spaces: restlessness, momentum, annoyance, joy, and the feeling that something is always just about to change.

Without a chordal instrument, the trio works in open air. Sommers and Hall, longtime musical partners, create a flexible, breathing environment that lets Farace move freely between weight and lightness, melody and momentum. The playing is big, but never crowded; virtuosic, but always pointed toward storytelling.

The standards here—“Chelsea Bridge” and “I’ll Be Seeing You,” along with Charles Davis’s “Just Us Blues”—aren’t reinventions so much as gestures of gratitude. They ground the album in history while the originals point forward, especially in how the baritone saxophone can function as a modern lead voice.

If Farace’s first album proved he was a composer with a wide emotional lens, Big Shoulders, Big Sounds shows something else: a player ready to stand in the center of the music and see how far he can take it.