Monday August 10 * doors at 6:30, music at 7 * $20-$30 * TICKETS

Transparent Productions presents:

An evening of music from this amazing trio of musicians from Chicago: Will Greene (sax, guitar), Ishmael Ali (cello), and Lily Finnegan (drums). This ensemble is defined by restlessness and sonic curiosity, this improbable improvising trio rides the edge between sonorous melodies, atonal outbursts, and tilted grooves — creating music that feels both elemental and unpredictable. Will Greene’s saxophone moves effortlessly between melodious phrasing and jagged rupture; Ishmael Ali’s cello oscillates between textural articulations, idiomatic gestures, and rhythmic grooves; and Lily Finnegan’s percussive approach spans pliant, groove‑oriented dialogue to fractured, pointillist soundscapes, providing a platform for both abstraction and lyricism. Together, their interplay coalesces into a dynamic conversation that propels the trio into spaces at once visceral, exploratory, and delightfully capricious.

WILL GREENE plays guitar and saxophone and currently resides in Chicago, after spending many years as an active member of various Brooklyn, NY music communities. His musical practice explores time-bending, pitch excursions, and interactive notions.In addition to an active schedule of jazz and improvisation adjacent activities, Will is a member of avant-thrash outfit TRIGGER, italo-prog orchestra TREDICI BACCI, and leads the CHICAGO MICROBES.

ISHMAEL ALI is a dynamic cellist, guitarist, improviser, and composer based out of Chicago. His work centers on exploring sound through improvisation, experimentation, composition, and collaboration, focusing on a wide array of idiomatic approaches in an ever-changing, always-growing list of projects informed by diverse influences. While varying drastically, a common thread in his work is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements to create something new: both foreign and familiar. Ishmael is leader or co-leader of a plethora of working projects including Hearsay, Ensemble Ziraph, and Akjai.

In addition to performing, Mr. Ali is a co-curator of the Thursday night Improvised Music Series at Elastic Arts, a co-founder and audio engineer at Marmalade, a recording and rehearsal space in the West Loop, and along with close friend and collaborator Bill Harris, runs the co-operative record label Amalgam Music.

LILY FINNEGAN is a Chicago-based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer. She was spotlighted by The Chicago Reader as a “Chicagoan of Note” and included in The Chicago Sun Times “Next Generation of Jazz Musicians.” She leads her own quartet, Heat On, which released their debut album on Cuneiform Records. Other projects include improvisational duo with gabby fluke-mogul and playing in Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux. She is a member of the Catalytic Sound Collective and co-curates the Option Series. In 2026 she became a Next Jazz Legacy awardee.