Articles
Clear Filters
Loading...
104 results
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2020
-
-
Chicago’s September jazz festivals cope with COVID
The city is replacing its traditional huge outdoor affair with a slimmed-down online event, while the smaller, nimbler Hyde Park Jazz Festival plans to try pop-up in-person shows.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 20, 2020
-
-
Remembering Chicago jazz anchor Joe Segal
It's not such a bad thing to be set in your ways when your ways are worth saving.
- Music, Concert Preview Jan 17, 2020
-
-
Free-jazz piano great Dave Burrell plays a rare Chicago show
- Music, Music Feature Sep 6, 2019
-
-
Why is Chicago jazz so successful in Europe?
Expat musicians Frank Rosaly and Rob Clearfield discuss the differences between pursuing jazz here and overseas.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
The Reader’s guide to the 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival
Its sprawling cross section of the genre includes world-changing explorers the Art Ensemble of Chicago, trad band the Fat Babies, venerable guitarist George Freeman, and restless experimenter Rob Mazurek.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
Mike Reed honors the modern golden age of Chicago jazz
The bandleader and drummer assembles an ensemble of composer-performers from The City Was Yellow, a “real book” documenting 30 years of the city’s jazz scene.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
Rob Mazurek refracts melody and groove through cosmic complexity
The trumpeter and polymath returns to his old hometown with the adventurous quartet Desert Encrypts Vol. 1.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
The Art Ensemble of Chicago celebrate 50 years of pushing great Black music into the future
Surviving cofounders Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye expand the group into an 18-piece big band with the likes of Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Jaribu Shahid, and Fred Berry.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
The Fat Babies wring the kitsch out of trad jazz
The vitality and commitment of these hardworking Chicago preservationists make antique songs feel brand-new.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
Trumpeter Russ Johnson dances along a fine line
The Wisconsin composer and bandleader strikes a perfect balance between mainstream and vanguard.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
Saxophonist Dave Rempis builds a band with the stamina for deep dives
The lively quartet this Chicago mainstay brings to the festival finds the meditative heart of free improvisation.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2019
-
-
Two Chicago institutions bridge jazz and blues
Guitarist George Freeman and harmonica player Billy Branch demonstrate the common roots of the sounds they love.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 26, 2019
-
-
The complete schedule of the 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival
All 58 sets in Millennium Park and the Cultural Center, including Cécile McLorin Salvant, the Eddie Palmieri Sextet, Freddy Cole, the Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet, and Christian McBride’s New Jawn
- Music, Music Feature Aug 22, 2019
-
-
The Jazz Festival’s orbit bustles with too much music for one weekend
Its ten days of neighborhood concerts, satellite shows, and aftersets include Kidd Jordan, Angel Bat Dawid, Jeff Parker, Marc Ribot, and Ben Sidran.
- Blogs, Bleader Sep 11, 2018
-
-
Say what you will about Mayor Rahm … he’s on to bigger and no doubt wealthier things
Looking back at the latest mayor Chicagoans have loved to hate.
- Blogs, Bleader Aug 28, 2018
-
-
Soul singer Christian JaLon turns her love inward on the new If You Let Me
Christian JaLon performs at the Jazz Festival this Thursday and celebrates her new EP next month at Subterranean.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2018
-
-
Flutist Nicole Mitchell uses music to map a possible paradise
She brings her Afrofuturist epic Mandorla Awakening back to Chicago for the Jazz Festival.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2018
-
-
Avant-garde reedist Chris Speed grows into tradition
With the trio he brings to the Jazz Festival, formed decades into his career, he treads the ground of the old masters without losing himself.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2018
-
-
Pianist Matthew Shipp can make magic with the perfect partner
He’s released more than a dozen albums with Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman just in the past two years, and their Jazz Festival set is the first time they’ve played together in Chicago.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2018
-
-
Bassist Eric Revis works at the conflux of the mainstream and its far-out tributaries
The quartet he brings to Jazz Fest is packed with inside-outside explorers: pianist Kris Davis, reedist Ken Vandermark, and drummer Chad Taylor.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 27, 2018
-
-
The jazz doesn’t stop when the park goes dark
This year’s Jazz Festival aftershows include Mako Sica with Hamid Drake, Dee Alexander performing Nina Simone, and the traditional engagements by Ira Sullivan and Edward “Kidd” Jordan.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 22, 2018
-
-
The complete schedule of the 2018 Chicago Jazz Festival
All 68 sets in Millennium Park and the Cultural Center, including Maceo Parker, Jaimie Branch, Jason Stein, Diane Reeves, Greg Ward & 10 Tongues, and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society
- Music, Music Feature May 30, 2018
-
-
Does Chicago have too many music festivals?
Lollapalooza’s ticket sales have slowed, and Reggae Fest and Chicago Open Air are canceled—are these the growth pangs of a healthy but crowded ecosystem, or is a crash on the way?
- Blogs, Bleader Feb 27, 2018
-
-
Lauren Deutsch steps down after 21 years as executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago
Veteran arts administrator Heather Ireland Robinson, who worked for the JIC in the early 2000s, steps into Deutsch's shoes on Thursday, March 1.
- Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Nov 7, 2017
-
-
Cosmic-minded jazz combo Spaceship Love made its only album in the 80s
Guitarist Samuel "Bebop" Thomas and vocalist Maja Rios formed the core of the groovy but underdocumented Spaceship Love.
