Highlights
Since 1979, the Chicago Jazz Festival has attracted tens of thousands of listeners annually to Grant Park for a free celebration of an art form indelibly associated with Chicago. The festival has gone through many transitions, starting as a seven-day event but eventually shrinking to four. In recent years, the festival has dramatically redefined itself.
The renamed Chicago Jazz Festival Week typically opens with a free show at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on Monday, continues with indoor, ticketed performances Tuesday through Thursday, followed by free Grant Park concerts Friday through Sunday. At its best, the Chicago Jazz Festival has commissioned major works by Randy Weston...
The renamed Chicago Jazz Festival Week typically opens with a free show at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on Monday, continues with indoor, ticketed performances Tuesday through Thursday, followed by free Grant Park concerts Friday through Sunday. At its best, the Chicago Jazz Festival has commissioned major works by Randy Weston...
Since 1979, the Chicago Jazz Festival has attracted tens of thousands of listeners annually to Grant Park for a free celebration of an art form indelibly associated with Chicago. The festival has gone through many transitions, starting as a seven-day event but eventually shrinking to four. In recent years, the festival has dramatically redefined itself.
The renamed Chicago Jazz Festival Week typically opens with a free show at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on Monday, continues with indoor, ticketed performances Tuesday through Thursday, followed by free Grant Park concerts Friday through Sunday. At its best, the Chicago Jazz Festival has commissioned major works by Randy Weston ("African Sunrise") and Gerald Wilson ("State Street Sweet"), while featuring most of the world's greatest jazz artists, from Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis to Benny Goodman and David Sanchez. Yet the festival also has been plagued by the dismal acoustics of the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, a ramshackle facility far inferior to the Pritzker Pavilion. Even so, as the oldest of the city-sponsored summer music festivals, the Chicago Jazz Festival has become a cultural mainstay, annually featuring all styles of jazz in the days leading up to Labor Day. For the most part, the programming by the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago has been creative and intellectually worthy of the occasion, particularly considering the limited entertainment budget provided by the city.
The renamed Chicago Jazz Festival Week typically opens with a free show at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on Monday, continues with indoor, ticketed performances Tuesday through Thursday, followed by free Grant Park concerts Friday through Sunday. At its best, the Chicago Jazz Festival has commissioned major works by Randy Weston ("African Sunrise") and Gerald Wilson ("State Street Sweet"), while featuring most of the world's greatest jazz artists, from Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis to Benny Goodman and David Sanchez. Yet the festival also has been plagued by the dismal acoustics of the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, a ramshackle facility far inferior to the Pritzker Pavilion. Even so, as the oldest of the city-sponsored summer music festivals, the Chicago Jazz Festival has become a cultural mainstay, annually featuring all styles of jazz in the days leading up to Labor Day. For the most part, the programming by the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago has been creative and intellectually worthy of the occasion, particularly considering the limited entertainment budget provided by the city.
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Donald Harrison ready to jam
Tribune criticWhen Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, in 2005, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison had two urgent goals: Save his family (and himself), and head to Chicago. Harrison accomplished both, taking care of his family and making it here to play a long-...Tags: Wine, Beer, and Spirits, Dizzy Gillespie, Society, Checkerboard Lounge, Plymouth
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Under the diverse Umbrella Music Festival
Tribune criticListeners who attend the Chicago Jazz Festival, presented mostly in Grant Park, may have become resigned to poor acoustics and poorer production values. But any number of jazz soirees in the Chicago area offer welcome alternatives, and one of them...Tags: Grant Park, Culture, Music, Theater, Festive Event
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Saving the Jazz Fest
If you love the Chicago Jazz Festival, the news that City Hall plans to shorten the event to three days from four might seem unfortunate. But if you consider the fest a dubiously produced, semipro affair sorely in need of reinvention—as I do—...Tags: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Festive Event, Millennium Park, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman
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Smaller festivals likely next year
Tribune criticChicago's free summer music festivals will look different—and, in some cases, smaller—next year, though the particulars have yet to be determined. The city's reduced budget for 2009 means that the Mayor's Office of Special Events, which...Tags: Grant Park, Culture, Taste of Chicago, Millennium Park, Festive Event
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Perez familiar to Chicago, but pianist keeps it fresh
Chicago Tribune criticIn many ways, the visionary Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez can be considered an honorary Chicagoan. He helped launch his national career here with a breakthrough performance in 1994 when he played with Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez at the long-...Tags: Taj Mahal, Northwestern University, Festive Event, The Morse Theatre, Evanston
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Riches from Hyde Park to Wilson downtown and Barber at the Green Mill
Chicago Tribune criticWhere does jazz live in Chicago? On the streets of the South Side, for instance, which swelled with more than 15,000 listeners who traveled by foot and trolley among nearly a dozen sites during the second annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival. That's three...Tags: DuSable Museum of African-American History, Festive Event, Grant Park, Midway, Music
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Planning a killer World Music Fest
Chicago Tribune criticSeven days, 21 venues, 65 bands, 71 events. No one ever will accuse the World Music Festival of dreaming small. The 10th annual event begins today, and it remains by far the most creative and innovative of the city-sponsored festivals, reaching into...Tags: Dancing, Millennium Park, Festive Event, Theater, Movies
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Dawkins is bringin' jazz home to Englewood
Chicago Tribune criticNearly a decade ago, an intrepid Chicago musician decided to create a grass-roots jazz festival in the neighborhood where he grew up: Englewood. Short on funds but long on passion, saxophonist-bandleader Ernest Dawkins succeeded not only in launching...Tags: Englewood, Festive Event, Fred Anderson, Grant Park, Checkerboard Lounge
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Praise for the Chicago Jazz Festival
The 30th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival, programmed by the Jazz Institute of Chicago, presented the two greatest living jazz saxophonists (Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman), four premieres of newly commissioned compositions and appearances by such major...Tags: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Millennium Park, Festive Event, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman
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Bringing jazz to Rogers Park: Will people follow?
TRIBUNE CRITICWith interior walls missing and mud and muck everywhere, it's literally a shell of its former self. But come September, the seemingly ancient Morse Theatre will be reborn, with the spirit of jazz. Flush with a $6 million-plus investment and operated...Tags: Glenwood, Cultural Development, Restaurant and Catering Industry, Theater, Festive Event
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A memorable weekend of jazz riches tempts
Tribune arts criticEach season, a few musical weekends stand out for their inordinate richness, and this is one of them. Consider a few of the highlights: David Sanchez For more than a decade, saxophonist Sanchez has ranked among the most inventive improvisers and...Tags: Dick Hyman, Arkansas, Michigan, Hurricanes, Glen Ellyn
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SUMMER MUSIC GUIDE
POP MUSIC Greg Kot Chicago Rocks: This annual event has become the premier showcase for local independent hip-hop. Past performers have included Lupe Fiasco, Rhymefest and Juice, among others, and this year's lineup includes veterans Crucial Conflict and...Tags: John Adams, Theater, Placido Domingo, Philip Glass, Dizzy Gillespie
Nov 28, 2008
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Sep 19, 2008
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Sep 12, 2008
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Sep 14, 2008
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Feb 24, 2008
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Oct 26, 2007
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Jun 1, 2007
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