My travels with Perry & Jimmy

One of the fringe benefits of having musicians for friends is you get to meet many very talented folks and experience scores of amazing performances. My percussive pal, jazz drummer Jimmy Bennington, has arranged for clarinet great Perry Robinson to grace this small corner of Chicago we call home. They'll be playing a few gigs together over the course of the next few days, and I'll do my best to tag along on their physical and aural travels.

Perry Robinson is an avant garde performer with a wide range of influences — from folk to swing, bee bop to klezmer, classical to free jazz — and a long list of famed fellow performers. He's also the author of the acclaimed autobiography The Traveler (available on Amazon.com), where he documents his never boring journey through this adventure we call life.

If you're in the Chicago area and want to try to keep up with these two sonic wayfarers, here's the road map:

• Saturday, August 29, 9pm, Velvet Lounge, 67 E. Cermak Rd., Chicago


• Sunday, August 30, 8pm, Morseland, 1218 W. Morse Ave., Chicago


• Sunday, August 30, 10pm, The Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago