Brian Citro concerts

About Brian Citro

Brian Citro is a Chicago guitarist and composer working in modern jazz with touches of soul, pop, dub, and improvisation. The specific draw is his 2026 quartet record Keep Moving (Home): fourteen original pieces that began largely as solo-guitar material, then gained saxophone, bass, drums, Wurlitzer, and carefully paced ensemble detail.

A recorded path rooted in Chicago

Citro’s documented recording story begins in 2007 through Video Gum Culture, a Chicago-linked collaborative project whose founding recording brought together Citro, Charles Gorczynski, Nate Lepine, Ernie Adams, and Harrison Bankhead. Its first release, Perseverance, arrived September 2, 2007 through Ears & Eyes Records. Citro wrote five of its nine tracks, while Gorczynski wrote four, setting an early precedent for shared authorship and improvising-band chemistry. Later work placed Citro squarely at the center as composer and guitarist, while keeping those collaborative instincts active.

From collective improvisation to the quartet record

Perseverance (2007, Ears & Eyes Records) is the useful opening chapter: a 58-minute Video Gum Culture album split between Citro and Gorczynski compositions. Citro’s titles, including “Newport Park,” “Hippopotamus,” and “Daphne and Daphne,” establish the writing credit trail behind an ensemble release. The record matters less as a preview of a single fixed style than as evidence of a musician already making room for other players inside his material.

Acoustic Pastime – Solo Guitar (2022, Ears & Eyes Records) brought the focus inward. Recorded by Citro in Chicago, it combines five originals with Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You” and “Pannonica,” plus “Moonlight in Vermont.” Citro described the pandemic-era project as a return to solo guitar, composition, and home recording; he also used a monthly Whistler residency to debut and refine the pieces. For a prospective listener, this is the clearest entry into his touch, harmonic sense, and unaccompanied pacing.

Keep Moving (Home) (2026, Calligram Records) expands that solo vocabulary into a full quartet. Nick Mazzarella plays alto saxophone and Wurlitzer, Matt Ulery plays acoustic and electric bass, and Quin Kirchner handles drums and percussion. The album was recorded to tape at Chicago’s Palisade Studio, with Citro and Mazzarella credited as producers. All About Jazz heard flexible harmonic movement and slow-to-moderate tempos; Paris Move traced the record’s subject of home to Citro’s work and musical travel in India, Ghana, and elsewhere. The change is structural: solo sketches become arrangements built for four distinct voices.

Partners across Chicago’s scenes

Citro joined jazz-reggae group The Drastics in 2005 and has continued to tour and record with the band; its mix of horns, dub effects, and instrumental improvisation supplies one active side of his career. He also co-leads The Hey Lows with Lance Loiselle, a Chicago project built around lo-fi production, hip-hop beats, jazz harmony, and improvisation. A further guitar partnership with Alejandro Urzagaste grew from their studies with Fareed Haque at Northern Illinois University, with bassist Alex Austin and drummer Mike August completing a double-guitar quartet at Dorian’s.

A local live practice, from residency rooms to halls

The live record points to a Chicago-centered practice with distinct formats. During an August 2022 residency at The Whistler, Citro held four Friday bookings: August 5, 12, 19, and 26. A March 31, 2023 Whistler listing identifies the solo set’s material as Citro compositions alongside music by Thelonious Monk and others, with sets at 7 and 8 PM. At Andy’s Jazz Club in 2025, his Citro–Urzagaste program used two guitars, bass, and drums for original compositions, standards, and jazz tunes. His July 2026 Constellation release show featured the current quartet, placing the 2026 material in the city’s jazz and improvised-music circuit. The August 28 Epiphany date sits within a venue campus whose Epiphany Hall accommodates 460 seated guests, though Golden Hour programming can use other spaces on site.

The next Chicago dates

Keep Moving (Home), released May 1, 2026 on Calligram, remains Citro’s latest solo album. The current calendar keeps him close to home: CrowdMate lists Golden Hour at Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago on August 28, 2026, followed by Andy’s Jazz Club on September 3, 2026. Apple Music also lists the Epiphany appearance for August 28 and an Andy’s late set for Thursday, September 3 at 10:30 PM.

Three tracks to queue first

Start with “Stay Where You Feel” for the quartet’s guitar-led entrance; “Trains of Thought” for Mazzarella’s brisk alto feature; and “Back To Ghana” for a direct sample of the solo-guitar world introduced on Acoustic Pastime.

Sources

1. Acoustic Pastime - Solo Guitar — Brian Citro Bandcamp
2. Perseverance — Presto Music
3. Brian Citro — The Whistler
4. Keep Moving (Home) – Brian Citro Review — All About Jazz
5. Brian Citro – Keep Moving (Home) — Paris Move
6. The Drastics — Brian Citro
7. Citro & Urzagaste Quartet — Dorian’s Through the Record Shop
8. The Hey Lows — Dorian’s Through the Record Shop
9. Epiphany Hall — Epiphany Center for the Arts
10. August 2022 Archive — Now Is