Windy city, jazz response
Chicagoans won't be deterred -- like other northerners, they shrug off January and find meaning by escaping their caves. At least, I hope so, heading into my hometown for the Jazz Institute of Chicago's annual winter Jazz Fair at the beautiful Cultural Center.
The fair is free -- free jazz! -- and features not just me reading from my new book and showing videos of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor (at 8 p.m.) but genuine live music across the jazz and jazz-beyond-jazz spectrum. Starting with swing clarinetist Chuck Hedges at 7 p.m. and my high school jam pal pianist Jim Baker (check out his debut solo recording of 2006 More Questions Than Answers) with extraordinary AACM flutist Nicole Mitchell (she has a recent dvd/cd release, Black Unstoppable at 7:30.
At 9 the fair delves into Chicago's unique jazz-blues connection with harmonica player Billy Branch and direly under-exposed singer Dee Alexander leading what looks like a stellar quintet (with genre-crossing guitarist Henry Johnson plus AACM bassist Yosef Ben Israel and drummer Leon Joyce, who's unknown so far to me) and simultaneously at another Cultural Center venue Latin jazz by pianist Edwin Sanchez's Project. From 9:30 to 11:45 Chicago's jazz master tenor saxophonist Von Freeman, mentor to several generations of midwestern players and at age 85 hugely deserving of National Endowment for the Arts recognition) fronts a quintet and directs a jam session. Usually you'd have to go on Monday nights to the Enterprise Lounge (south 75th Street) for such a treat.
On Saturday, from 11:30 am 'til 5 p.m., the Jazz Fair reconvenes with jazz cinema -- The World Of John Coltrane (in '85 I conducted the interviews with Jimmy Heath, Tommy Flanagan, Rashied Ali and Wayne Shorter used in this film), a Polish tv document of Nicole Mitchell's "Harambee Project," "Tootie's Last Suit" about a renown Mardi Gras Indian chief, "Sippie" is all about late classic blues woman Sippie Wallace, and rare jazz films by Bob Koester, proprieter of Delmark Records and the Jazz Record Mart, where as a teenager I filled my ears, eyes and mind on the roots of what I love today.
I'm not pushing this event for the hype of it. The Jazz Fair should serve as a model for other ad hoc music-lovers' associations to energize their audiences in the doldrums of harsh seasons. Hearing, viewing, socializing and maybe expanding personal horizons is what the culturally curious enjoy. Low cost and variety are highlights that can attract young and new listeners, whatever genre is presented. The investment by ad hoc arts support organizations can be modest, and the returns huge. If you're in Chicago, drop by. If you're not, suffer envy.
Categories:
Blogroll
Jazz Journalists Association's Jazzhouse
Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz
James Hale's Jazz Chronicles
The Bad Plus' Do The Math
Larry Blumenfeld's Listen Good
Fred Kaplan's Jazz Messenger
Doug Ramsey's Riffides
Hank Shteamer's Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches
Michael J. West's Pop Musicology
Tim Posgate's Canadian 'jazzlife'
David R. Adler's Lerterland
Dean Minderman's St. Louis Jazz Notes
Carl Wilson's cross-genre Zoilus
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
David Ryshpan's Settled in Shipping
Dave Douglas's Greenleaf Music Blog
Pamela's Bebopified
Andrea Cantor's JazzInk
Kazue Yokoi's exblog (in Japanese)
Jazz.com
Bob Lewis' Jazz My Two Cents Worth
AJ Blogs
AJBlogCentral | rssculture
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Rebuilding Gulf Culture after Katrina
Douglas McLennan's blog
Art from the American Outback
John Rockwell on the arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
dance
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
media
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
music
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
publishing
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
theatre
Elizabeth Zimmer on time-based art forms
visual
Public Art, Public Space
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog
2 Comments
Leave a comment