Thursday night punk music at One City Tap (3115 S. Archer)? Must be Otro Ritmo! Rejoice in the frenzied guitars of Poison Boys, Liquids (a favorite of Reader senior writer Leor Galil), and Flying Heads. The show starts at 9 PM and wraps at midnight. Will it run on punk time? Who’s to say! For […]
Tag: Chicago Jazz Festival
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The Reader’s guide to the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival
In a less imperfect world, Millennium Park would be hosting the 44th annual Chicago Jazz Festival right about now. As of 2019, the festival had been held in downtown parks for an unbroken string of 41 years. Thanks to COVID-19, though, it was canceled in 2020 and 2021. The first summer of the pandemic, the […]
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The best of the jazz outside the fest
For several years now, the heart of the Chicago Jazz Festival has been in Millennium Park. This year the four days of the fest also include programming at the Cultural Center (from 11 AM till 5:15 PM on Thursday, September 1) and a lunchtime show at the Maxwell Street Market on Sunday, September 4. Around […]
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Seven don’t-miss Jazz Festival sets
The Jazz Institute of Chicago’s bookings for this year’s Jazz Festival reaffirm the organization’s commitment to presenting a variety of music by local, national, and international acts. Everything on the bill is worthwhile, but these are the sets at the top of my list. Chicago Jazz FestivalThu 9/1, 11 AM-9 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 […]
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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 […]
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Bob Koester leaves a colossal legacy in Chicago jazz and blues
For nearly 70 years, Bob Koester owned the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records—and though his businesses could be “crazy town,” they helped nurture thriving communities.
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Chicago’s September jazz festivals cope with COVID
The city is replacing the Chicago Jazz Festival with a slimmed-down online event, while the smaller, nimbler Hyde Park Jazz Festival plans to try pop-up in-person shows.
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Remembering Chicago jazz anchor Joe Segal
Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal was set in his ways, but his ways are worth saving.
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Free-jazz piano great Dave Burrell plays a rare Chicago show
The only time I’ve seen wild jazz pianist Dave Burrell play live was in an odd setting for him—he joined free-jazz bass titan William Parker for a program called “The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield” at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2009. The ensemble also included drummer and musical polymath Hamid Drake and writer Amiri […]
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Why is Chicago jazz so successful in Europe?
Chicago expats Frank Rosaly and Rob Clearfield discuss the differences between pursuing jazz here and overseas.
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The Reader’s guide to the 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival
This year’s lineup details a sprawling cross section of the genre, including world-changing explorers the Art Ensemble of Chicago, trad band the Fat Babies, venerable guitarist George Freeman, and restless experimenter Rob Mazurek.
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Saxophonist Dave Rempis builds a band with the stamina for deep dives
The lively quartet Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis brings to the festival finds the meditative heart of free improvisation.
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The Art Ensemble of Chicago celebrate 50 years of pushing great Black music into the future
Art Ensemble 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.
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The Fat Babies wring the kitsch out of trad jazz
Hardworking Chicago preservationists the Fat Babies play with the vitality and commitment to make antique songs feel brand-new.
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Mike Reed honors the modern golden age of Chicago jazz
Bandleader and drummer Mike Reed assembles an ensemble of composer-performers from The City Was Yellow, a “real book” documenting 30 years of the city’s jazz scene.