When tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan died in 1993, he hadn’t lived in Chicago for nearly 40 years, but he was still beloved here. “Clifford’s personality was warm and sincere, just like his tone on the saxophone,” Chicago tenor titan Von Freeman told Howard Reich at the Tribune. “He was a beautiful person—he helped me and […]
Tag: Charles Mingus
Posted inMusic
The Reader’s Jazz Festival jukebox
Like any music fest, the Chicago Jazz Festival is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure that you listen to. It’s even more multifarious than most—not only does it take over Millennium Park for four days, it also books events at the Cultural Center and Maxwell Street Market and a series of neighborhood concerts (copresented with […]
Posted inBlogs
Jason Moran reimagines the music of Charles Mingus; guitarist Bern Nix dead at 69
The ingenious pianist and composer collaborates with the idiosyncratic singer Georgia Anne Muldrow tonight at Symphony Center; meanwhile, the innovative guitarist who made his mark in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band has passed.
Posted inMusic
Saxophonist Greg Ward returns to Chicago on Mingus wings
A multidisciplinary project inspired by Mingus’s The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady helped lure Chicago saxophonist Greg Ward back from New York—and it could make for his biggest album yet.
Posted inBlogs
Influential jazz pianist Paul Bley dead at 83
Canadian pianist Paul Bley, one of jazz’s greatest innovators and improvisers, passed away on Sunday.
Posted inMusic
In Rotation: Bad Mashadi front man Ehsan Ghoreishi on the loudest saxophonist in Chicago
Current musical obsessions of Lamajamal bassist Joey Spilberg and Bad Mashadi front man Ehsan Ghoreishi
Posted inBlogs
Meshell Ndegeocello and Mingus
Meshell Ndegeocello is a natural choice to guest at the Chicago Jazz Ensemble’s Mingus homage Friday night
Posted inBlogs
Happy 100th, Lester Young
Lester Young Today is the 100th anniversary of Lester Young‘s birth. I’m not going to take up your time telling you who he was or why you should care—chances are you already know and already do, or else there’s no persuading you. What I am going to tell you to do is look at this […]
Posted inBlogs
Dusty Groove keeps cranking out the good stuff
Dusty Groove reissues two tasty morsels of Chicago music history.
Posted inBlogs
Mingus from the vaults
A newly discovered 1964 concert by the Charles Mingus Sextet kicks serious ass.
Posted inFilm
Too Big for the Screen
The sheer impossibility of encompassing jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader Charles Mingus (1922-’79) in a single film limits Don McGlynn’s ambitious 1997 documentary, Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog, from the outset. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it—it’s playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and Mingus’s second wife, Celia Mingus Zaentz, will lead […]
Posted inMusic
Duke Ellington: The Blanton-Webster Band; Duke Ellington Orchestra/Count Basie Orchestra–First Time! The Count Meets the Duke; Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach–Money Jungle
DUKE ELLINGTON: THE BLANTON-WEBSTER BAND RCA Bluebird 5659-1-RB FIRST TIME! THE COUNT MEETS THE DUKE Duke Ellington Orchestra/Count Basie Orchestra Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CJ 40586 MONEY JUNGLE Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach Blue Note BT 85129 Few American popular musicians were quite as honored and lionized in their lifetime as Duke Ellington. The great […]