The 32nd Chicago Jazz Festival opened Thursday, sailing into the weekend on a full head of steam from the Made In Chicago series finale, which placed Ahmad Jamal and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra within the modernistic gleam of metal and lights at Millennium Park.
Earlier, at Ganz Hall – a cathedral of warm woods and stained-glass windows at Roosevelt University – the Jazz Festival presented what could well emerge as the most satisfying collaboration of the entire weekend. This extraordinary duo concert, by flutist Nicole Mitchell and pianist Anthony Davis, filled the room with 75 minutes of ravishing, intimate, virtuosic music. It fed the brain but above all nourished the soul.
The good news, for those who missed the duo, is that Davis and festival artist-in-residence Mitchell will again share a stage tonight, as part of Mitchell’s Black Earth Orchestra (again at Millennium Park). The better news? The jazz festival is where the music begins, but certainly not where it ends.
Yesterday I gave you some tips about the weekend schedule. But as any committed festival-goer know all too well – the knowledge bolstered by memories of music hangovers past – there’s a whole other jazz festival taking place after the park closes down. Here’s a quick rundown of noteworthy after-fest destinations, south to north.
Velvet Lounge (67 E. Cermak): During the lifetime of Velvet Lounge founder Fred Anderson, the club became the go-to spot for after-fest avant-garde. This had much to do with the presence of Velvet stalwarts like reedist Douglas R. Ewart and drummer Avreeayl Ra; visiting artists like tenor saxist Kidd Jordan (the New Orleans master of extended technique) and legendary bassist Henry Grimes, both of whom have traveled to Chicago specifically for the after-fest sets; and occasional sitters-in from Grant Park. They’ll all be on hand for this first Jazz Festival weekend since Anderson’s passing this summer, along with bassists Tatsu Aoki and Harrison Bankhead, saxists Francis Wong and Mars Williams, drummers Chad Taylor and Isaiah Spencer, and who-knows who else – the idea being to carry on a great tradition. Arrive early (9 if you can) and plan to stay late.
Jazz Showcase (806 S. Plymouth Ct.): It's the after-fest HQ for mainstream jazz. The Showcase regularly attracts a slew of the jazz fest’s headliners and their sidemen – many of whom have played the club on their own in the past – to sit in with the guy calling the shots. (It doesn’t hurt that the club is five minutes by cab from the Jazz Festival site.) This year “the guy” is swing-to-bop saxist and clarinetist Eric Schneider, leading a rhythm section headed up by pianist Willie Pickens; the guest list of after-fest stars could well include tenor man Eric Alexander, pianist Mike LeDonne, and guitarist Peter Bernstein (Friday); trumpeters Nicholas Payton and David Weiss and saxists Tim Warfield and Billy Harper (Saturday); and trumpeter Brad Goode, saxist Ernie Watts, and vocalist Kurt Elling (Saturday and Sunday). I’m not promising anything; I’m just saying.
Heaven (1550 N. Milwaukee, 2nd floor): A relatively new player in the after-fest sweepstakes, the tiny Heaven Gallery offers events tonight (Friday) and tomorrow under the pretty cute heading “Hereafterfest.” Tonight, the strong tenor saxist David Boykin celebrates the release of the new album Ultra Sheen from his quintet Expanse, which stars none other than the Jazz Festival’s artist-in-residence (and Boykin’s significant other), Nicole Mitchell. Opening for Expanse is guitarist Alex Wing. Saturday, Boykin unveils another new CD from a different quintet, his Microcosmic Sound Orchestra; opening the night is violinist Renee Baker’s six-piece Mantra Blue Orchestra. Both nights the first set kicks at 10.
UndergroundFest 2010 (1564 N. Damen, 3rd floor): Around the corner from Heaven (above) you'll find a new locale for a grizzled veteran of the music wars. Percussionist and bandleader Kahil El’Zabar started staging Afrocentric/avant-garde after-fest sessions in the 80s, in a variety of venues all around the city. (This was years before the Velvet Lounge assumed that function.) He’s back now with a three-night affair in a gallery space billed as the Toyota Creative Lounge (powered by, of all things, Toyota Motors -- yep, you read it right). It's above a trendy shoe store just off the Damen stop on the Blue Line; if you know El’Zabar, this somehow fits perfectly. Tonight he conducts his own Experimental Band, featuring his contemporaries Robert Griffin (trumpet) and Edwin Daugherty (sax). Saturday, El’Zabar leads a youth-movement quartet (with keyboardist Justin Dillard) behind the soulful vocalist Dwight Trible; Sunday he puts down the sticks and skins to welcome trumpeter Corey Wilkes’s neo-everything band Abstrakt Pulse. Music starts at 10:30 each night.
Katerina’s (1920 W. Irving Park): As a “salute” to the Jazz Festival, the couple behind Southport Records (pianist Bradley Parker-Sparrow and vocalist wife Joanie Pallatto) present the uncategorizable Chicago guitar avatar George Freeman, still going strong in his 80s. The sets start at 10 for after-fest celebrants; venerated saxophonist Jimmy Ellis plays earlier (6:30 – 9) with the canny pianist Miguel de la Cerna. (And everyone who attends received a free CD from the Southport catalog, which pretty much balances out your $10 cover.)
Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway): The Mill doesn’t require a jazz-festival weekend for late-night dropping by; with music till 4 AM Friday and 5 AM Saturday, every night is an “after-fest” of sorts. For the earlier shows this weekend, though, owner Dave Jemilo has smartly booked two of the better bands in town. The Dennis Luxion Quintet, with an emphasis on the leader’s compact compositions, plays Friday, 9 PM-1 AM; Mike Reed’s much-lauded People, Places & Things (with returning hometown saxist Greg Ward) plays Saturday from 8 PM-midnight. Both of these are bands you would find on the Festival stages, which makes a visit this weekend a neat extension of the downtown experience. And of course, the regular early-morning groups show up afterward, to wind the night down or the morning up -- depending on your point of view.
Labor Day is the 2nd deadliest U.S. holiday, with 487 fatalities in 2008 – nearly half of which were alcohol related. Stay safe and avoid arrest for DUI by using the CTA or designating a sober driver.
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