Too much jazz in Chicago this week to write at length about it all, but also too much to ignore:
- Congrats to Joe Segal, proprietor of the Jazz Showcase forever, at various spots, inducted as an NEA Jazz Master. I owe Joe Segal big time, as he encouraged my 17-year-old interests in jazz and even let me in free to hear jazz masters of the years gone by, especially tenor saxophonists Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Forrest, Coleman Hawkins. . .and Sun Ra. This had me coming back for more. . .
Joe Segal at the Jazz Showcase, in front of his hero Charlie Parker
- Such as Dee Alexander, at the Showcase last week, where she did an exemplary Billie Holiday tribute set — ever hear “Gloomy Sunday” sung in a club? – backed by her hot and responsive trio featuring pianist Miguel de la Cerna, bassist Junius Paul, drummer Youssef Ernie Adams . . .
Dee Alexander at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase; photo by Marc PoKempner
- Then a change of pace: Consider the Source, subversively subtle (once you get past the high volume and dazzling light show) a self-described “sci fi-Middle Eastern-fusion” rock instrumental power trio starring double-necked guitar wiz Gabriel Marin, super-bad bassist John Ferrara and odd-meter-adept drummer Jeff Mann, on Saturday last blew the roof off the Bottom Lounge, especially raising the bar during a sit-in with Grateful Dead-inspired headliners the Werks. . .
- Tatsu Aoki, avantbassist who unites Asian-American traditional music, Chicago AACM extrapolations and blues traditions, was honored on Sunday as a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association (thanks to Neil Tesser for setting this up at Elastic Arts, and getting a proclamation hailing Tatsu signed by Mayor Rahm Emmanuel). In celebration played a strong set with his daughter on taiko drums, tenor sax Ed Wilkerson, baritonist Mwata Bowden, drummer
Tatsu Aoki with Jazz Hero Award and mayoral proclamation in his honor; Neil Tesser at left, HM further left; photo by Lauren Deutsch
Avreeal Ra and percussionist Coco Elysses. Other Chicago Jazz Heroes in the house: Bowden, former pres of the Chicago AACM; Jazz Institute of Chicago exec director Lauren Deutsch (who took the photo at right), and jazz connector/consultant Jim deJong. Aoki’s Miyumi Project performs tonight (Friday)Â at the Hilton Orrington Hotel in Evanston for free, thanks to a Northwestern University Asian-American Studies program.
- An AACM 50th anniversary weekend began Wednesday at The Promontory in Hyde Park with Mike Reed playing cardboard box and steel tongue drum in duo with imaginative cellist Tomeka Reid, joined by dancer Ayako Kato. I have a bias against interpretive jazz dance, but Ms. Kato was very compelling, moving with swift, taut detail, working within and from the music for an uninterrupted 40 minutes.
- Second act at The Promontory: robust singer Saalik Ziyad led Epoch Zed, a latest-generation sharp AACM-ish quintet (collaborators to watch: reedist Fred Jackson, vibes and electronics Preyas Roy, drummer Vincent Davis). Ziyad sheepishly offered the originality of his vocalese lyrics to Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” as an apology for playing “old” jazz at an AACM event – there’s a proscription against that!
- Third up: tenor-soprano-flute-electric wind instrumentalist Hanah Jon Taylor, in from Madison WI, very bracingly blowing over bassist Yosef Ben Israel and drummer Dushun Mosely . . .
- Also tonight, Friday, pianist Adegoke Steve Colson and his wife Iqua, a vocalist,  celebrating their 40th year “in the moment” at International House, U of Chicago — longtime AACM stomping grounds — with trumpeter Rasul Saddik altoist Ernest Dawkins, bassist Darius Savage and drummer Mosely . . .
- Saturday 4/25: Solo pianist Marilyn Crispell performs in Chicago for the first time in nine years, at Constellation (Mike Reed’s place), but earlier in the day (11 am to 1 pm) members of Samana, the all-women ensemble that formed in the 1990s to establish AACM feminism (historically, an oxymoron?) reunites for a performance/master class at the Logan Center, U of Chicago . . .
- Sunday: 50 at 50Â is a cross-generational (not the usual, or easy thing) AACM mega-concert at Mandel (no relation) Hall at U of C, 7 to 9 pm. So I’ll have to watch Game of Thrones on HBO on Demand. In the afternoon, 1 to 3 pm, flutist Nicole Mitchell and violinist Renee Baker conduct a Creative Music Summit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, discussing their upcoming commissions, among other issues.
Monday rolls around and Chicago blues pianist Erwin Helfer with compatriots tenor man John Brumbach and singer Katherine Davis do their weekly gig at Township near Logan Square, and there’s a fantastic straightahead jam at the neighborhoody Serbian Village, anchored by pianist Tommy Muellner’s trio with bassist Kelly Sill and drummer Phil Gratteau . . . and the week stretches on. . .
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