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.
Tag: Jazz Institute of Chicago
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Arts 77 shores up the city’s creative infrastructure
Chicago’s new Arts 77 program will spend $60 million on cultural facilities and art.
Posted inMusic
Jumaane Taylor, tap dancer
“I’ve been on this journey to be able to present within the jazz community. . . . To be a union of creative beauty.”
Posted inMusic
Remembering Chicago jazz anchor Joe Segal
Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal was set in his ways, but his ways are worth saving.
Posted inMusic
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.
Posted inMusic
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.
Posted inMusic
Why won’t City Hall fight for Chicago’s homegrown music scene?
The Chicago Independent Venue League shouldn’t have to push back against the Live Nation handouts in the Lincoln Yards development—but City Hall doesn’t protect Chicago’s homegrown music scene.
Posted inBlogs
Celebrating the work that iconic Chicago saxophonist Von Freeman did with Sun Ra
Von Freeman played in Sun Ra’s Arkestra in 1959 and ’60, and this week French horn player and Chicago native Vincent Chancey leads a strong local group through tunes Ra played in those days.
Posted inBlogs
The first black leader of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Heather Ireland Robinson, talks segregation and infrastructure
Robinson embarks on her 20th year in Chicago arts administration by taking the reins of the Jazz Institute.
Posted inBlogs
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.
Posted inMusic
Seven portraits of the Chicago Jazz Festival
The compelling characters at this year’s Jazz Festival include avant-garde elder Roscoe Mitchell, indefatigable experimenter Mary Halvorson, and defiantly joyful South African survivor Louis Moholo-Moholo.
Posted inMusic
The jazz after the fest
The city’s usual bounty of shows gets a big bump during the Jazz Festival.
Posted inMusic
The fest around Jazz Fest
This year’s Jazz Festival preshows and aftershows include Tony Malaby, Kidd Jordan, Ira Sullivan, Alvin Fielder, and Edward Wilkerson Jr.
Posted inMusic
Jazz bassist and vocalist Katie Ernst rises like the tide
Jazz bassist and vocalist Katie Ernst hasn’t helped only herself with her talent, wit, and confidence—she’s also lifting up her peers and students.
Posted inBlogs
Tenor saxophonists Wilkerson and Brown blow into Hamilton Park on Friday
Local tenor heavies Edward Wilkerson Jr. and Ari Brown visit Hamilton Park for a free Friday show.
