For her 2019 record Visions, jazz saxophonist Melissa Aldana looked outside herself, crafting songs around meditations on the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. But on her new Blue Note debut, 12 Stars, the 33-year-old bandleader taps into the realities of the pandemic era to explore inward, plumbing familial links and self-care as well as […]
Tag: Blue Note
Posted inMusic
Makaya McCraven remixes jazz history
It’s been more than a decade since Blue Note Records released an album by a Chicago artist. The last time anyone based here appeared on the roster of this definitive jazz label, it was vocalists Patricia Barber and Kurt Elling, whose most recent Blue Note records as bandleaders arrived in the 2000s. But on November […]
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Tony Allen, Skepta, and Ben Okri become one with the universe on ‘Cosmosis’
A year after the death of pioneering Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, a posthumous album highlights his work with younger generations.
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Nearly a century ago, Dave Tough helped define Chicago jazz drumming
Chicago jazz drummer Dave Tough died young, only barely outliving the big-band era, but his influence lives on.
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If enough of us celebrate Independent Venue Week, we might have one next year too
For Independent Venue Week, the Reader has rounded up some favorite stories about Chicago music venues past and present.
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Building on the pillars of Blue Groove Lounge
An oral history of DJ Jesse de la Peña’s foundational Blue Groove Lounge hip-hop night, on the occasion of its belated 25th birthday parties
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Guitarist Dave Specter on the young stars building the future of the blues
Current musical obsessions of recording artists Dave Specter and Nicholas Tremulis and Reader associate editor Jamie Ludwig
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The Secret History of Chicago Music: Albert Ammons
This pianist helped kick off the boogie-woogie craze, but his fame has faded—in part because he died young in 1949.
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In Rotation: Ayana Contreras of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul on a softly stratospheric Andrew Hill LP
Current musical obsessions of Primeridian’s Simeon Viltz and Ayana Contreras of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul
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In Rotation: Saxophonist Nick Mazzarella on John Coltrane in his own words
Current musical obsessions of saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and drummer Frank Rosaly
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The Secret History of Chicago Music: Johnny Griffin
Jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin isn’t exactly obscure, but he’s been unjustly overshadowed since his heyday in the 50s and 60s.
Posted inArts & Culture
Romance in the 90s (or lack thereof)
Journey into the Reader’s back issues from the 90s for a retro look at Missed Connections.
Posted inBlogs
Blue Note bonanza
A Japanese website offers the full visual spectrum of Blue Note Records’s iconic design work.
Posted inBlogs
The Art of Independent Jazz, Collected for Your Coffee Table
A new coffee table book collects album art from independently released jazz LPs of the 60s and 70s.