Chicago Jazz Festival – August 31st-September 3rd, 2023
DELMARK ARTISTS at 2023 Chicago Jazz Festival
Friday, September 1, Jay Pritzker Pavilion
- 6:25 – 7:25pm – Ari Brown Quintet
- Ari Brown, appears Friday, September 1, at the Chicago Jazz Festival, then plays club dates Sunday night at the Hungry Brain and Monday afternoon at the Jazz Showcase.
Sunday September 3rd Jay Pritzker Pavilion
- 5:25-6:10pm – Chicago Soul Jazz Collective with Dee Alexander
Chicago Soul Jazz Collective with Dee Alexander
Javier Red Quartet
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
8:00pm-10:00pm
Wednesday Night Fellowship with Ted Sirota
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
9:00pm-12:00am
Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60618, USA
Andy Brown at the Green Mill
Thursday, August 31, 2023
5:00pm-7:30pm
The Green Mill, 4802 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640, USA
$10 cover
Chris Foreman
Friday, September 1, 2023
5:00pm-7:30pm
The Green Mill, 4802 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640, USA
Bakerz Million at Winter’s
Sunday, September 3, 2023
5:30pm-9:00pm
Soul Message
Sunday, September 3, 2023
8:00pm-12:00am
The Green Mill, 4802 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640, USA
Ari Brown, Joshua Abrams, and Mike Reed
Sunday, September 3, 2023
9 PM, Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont, $10, 21+
Monday, September 4 – Labor Day Jazz Fest
Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct., $20, student $15, VIP $30, 21+
Labor Day Festival 4 PM: Paul Wertico (drums), Scott Earl Holman (piano), Mark Neuenschwander (bass); 5 PM: Ari Brown (tenor saxophone), Matt Ulery (bass), Ted Sirota (drums), Jim Holman (piano); 6 PM: Sam Robinson (trumpet), Mark Neuenschwander (bass), Linard Stroud (drums), Jim Holman (piano); 7 PM: Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone), Tim Davis (drums), John Sutton (bass), Jim Holman (piano); 8 PM: Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone), Tim Davis (drums), Clark Sommers (bass), Jim Holman (piano),
Ron Carter and Foursight photo by Frank Nourry
Thursday, August 31
Chicago Cultural Center| Claudia Cassidy Theater
11am-12pm:The Live the Spirit Residency Young Masters, Presented by Live the Spirit
12:15pm-1:15pm:Asian Improv, Francis Wong’s “Legends and Legacies,” Presented by Asian Improv
2pm-3pm:Fred Jackson’s Erudition Project, Presented by The Elastic Arts Foundation
3:15pm-5:15pm: What is this thing called Jazz? Presented by the Education Committee of the Jazz Institute of Chicago
Preston Bradley Hall
11am–12pm: Zubin Edalji’s Four Windows, Presented by The Hyde Park Jazz Society 12:30pm-1:30pm: Zack Markstet, Performing Horace Silvers’ 1966 release “The Jody Grind,” Presented by The Fulton Street Collective
2pm-3pm: The Natalie Scharf Quartet, Presented by Illiana Club
3:30pm-4:30pm: Bobbi Wilson, Presented by The South Side Jazz Coalition
Millennium Park
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
6:30pm-7:30pm: Chico Freeman 100
8pm -9pm: Ron Carter and Foursight
Dianne Reeves photo by Jerris Madison
Friday, September 1
Millennium Park
Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)
11:30am-12:25pm: Eric Hochberg String Thing
12:40pm-1:35pm: Alexis Lombre Quartet
1:50pm -2:45pm: Anthony Bruno Quartet
3pm-4pm: Jeb Bishop Quartet
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:15pm-5:05pm: Juan Pastor Chinchano
5:25pm-6:10pm: Walter Smith III Quartet
6:25pm-7:25pm: Ari Brown Quintet
7:45pm-9:00pm: Dianne Reeves
Makaya McCraven
Saturday, September 2
Millennium Park
Harris Theater Rooftop: Young Lions Jazz
11am: Chicago High School for the Arts
11:50am: Midwest Young Artists Conservatory
12:40pm: Lane Tech College Prep High School
1:35pm: Whitney Young High School
2:25pm:Kenwood Academy High School
Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)
11:30am-12:25pm: Alvin Cobb Jr.
12:40pm-1:35pm: Devon Sandridge
1:50pm-2:45pm: Theodis Rodgers Organ Trio
3pm-4pm: Carmen Stokes
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:15pm-5:05pm: Tammy McCann
5:25pm-6:10pm: Brandee Younger
6:25pm-7:25pm:Nduduzo Makhathini
7:45pm-9pm:Makaya McCraven
Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars photo by Tom Ehrlich
Sunday, September 3
Millennium Park
Harris Theater Rooftop Jazz: Next Gen Jazz
11am-11:40am:Saucedo Alumni Latin Jazz Collective
12pm-12:40pm: Urban Horizons
1pm-1:40pm: Charlie Reichert Powell & New River
2pm-2:40pm: Neon Wilderness
3pm -3:40pm: Mxmrys
Von Freeman Pavilion (North Promenade)
11:30am-12:25pm:Herbsaint
12:40pm-1:35pm: Tim Fitzgerald Wes Montgomery Project
1:50pm-2:45pm:Christian Dillingham Quartet
3pm-4pm: Petra’s Recession Seven
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:15pm-5:05pm: The Pharez Whitted Quintet
5:25pm-6:10pm: Chicago Soul Jazz Collective w/ Dee Alexander
6:25pm-7:25pm: Billy Valentine
7:45pm-9pm: Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars
Programming of the Chicago Jazz Festival
The Jazz Institute of Chicago celebrates its 54th year promoting and nurturing Chicago’s world class jazz community. Founded in 1969, this not-for-profit organization works tirelessly to provide education, develop and support musicians, build audiences, and foster a thriving jazz scene in Chicago through education and public programs.
The Jazz Institute is the programming partner for the Chicago Jazz Festival since 1979, Jazz Institute of Chicago works with DCASE to help ensure audiences experience the highest quality international, national, local, and young future jazz artists.
The Chicago Jazz Festival is sponsored by 90.9fm WDCB, Chicago Transit Authority, WGN TV, Millennium Garages, Chicago Jazz Publishing and DownBeat.
POSTED INMUSIC
The Chicago Jazz Festival plays it safe
This year’s solid lineup largely lacks the usual avant-garde artists, but plenty of daring satellite shows are still happening around town.
by Bill Meyer August 23, 2023
Credit: Patrick L. Pyszka, City of Chicago
The 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival was a heartening return to form for an event that hadn’t happened as usual since 2019. The weather held up, the crowds came out, and the programming did a fine job balancing a diversity of visions of what constitutes jazz. That success makes the conservatism of this year’s program doubly puzzling.
The festival runs free of charge Thursday, August 31, through Sunday, September 3, in Millennium Park and at the Chicago Cultural Center. And admittedly, the lineup checks plenty of important boxes. Student ensembles and young musicians will take their usual place on the Harris Theater rooftop early Saturday and Sunday—a vital acknowledgment of the players who will carry the genre forward. And the morning and afternoon programming Thursday at the Cultural Center and Friday through Sunday at the Von Freeman Pavilion (on the park’s north promenade) includes singer and keyboardist Alexis Lombre; trombonist Jeb Bishop leading a quartet with trumpeter Russ Johnson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Isaiah Spencer; and small groups revisiting classic music by Horace Silver, Wes Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, and Sidney Bechet.
Chicago Jazz Festival
Thu 8/31, 11 AM-5:15 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington; Thu 8/31, 6:30-9 PM, Fri 9/1, 11:30 AM-9 PM, Sat 9/2 and Sun 9/3, 11 AM-9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph; free, all ages
The big names at Pritzker Pavilion include drummer Makaya McCraven, whose recent recordings reconcile the lushness of 70s film soundtracks with assertive hip-hop grooves; Dianne Reeves, a 2018 NEA Jazz Master, who will satisfy fans of vocal jazz; Chicago-born saxophonist Chico Freeman, who’ll celebrate the centennial of his father, Von Freeman; octogenarian bassist Ron Carter, who’s been involved in a vast swath of jazz history; singer Billy Valentine, who’ll draw on more than half a century of socially and spiritually conscious soul, gospel, and jazz; and Juan de Marcos & the Afro-Cuban All Stars, who’ll get folks on their feet for the customary party-oriented closing set.
Despite that wide variety, though, the history of jazz is much better represented than its potential futures—and that’s especially disappointing, because avant-garde bookings are usually such a strong point for the festival. The programming committee is a collaboration between the Jazz Institute of Chicago and the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and it currently includes author and Reader contributor Aaron Cohen. He assures me this year’s bill doesn’t reflect a shift in priorities. “Each year, the committee tries to balance performance idioms, generations, and instruments,” Cohen says. “We don’t book headliners who have headlined in the last five years.”
That said, the 2023 lineup doesn’t have a paradigm-shifting figure on the level of past festival performers Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, or Henry Threadgill. It gets close with 79-year-old Chicago saxophonist and pianist Ari Brown, an esteemed player who’s worked in avant-garde settings—and who’s also a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which has supported Black musical self-determination since the 1960s. Brown has had a great year, working as a guest soloist with Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society and in a new trio with Abrams and drummer Mike Reed. But his Friday-evening Pritzker Pavilion appearance with his regular quintet will celebrate his own rich history rather than explore the directions he might still take the music in the future.
This year’s Jazz Festival does the most to honor the pursuit of transformation and reinvention that makes jazz a living art form by giving a Saturday-evening Pritzker Pavilion set to South African composer and pianist Nduduzo Makhathini. His trio consists of drummer Francisco Mela and bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, and his music combines Zulu ceremonial forms and celebratory township grooves with a spiritual intensity inspired by John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. The Cuban-born Mela, who appeared here as part of Experimental Sound Studio’s Option series earlier this month, drummed for pianist McCoy Tyner from 2009 till 2019, and more recently, he’s made electrifying free-jazz recordings with Zoh Amba, Matthew Shipp, and William Parker—he’s a living link to Makhathini’s American inspirations.
Every year, Chicago’s jazz clubs do their best to keep the festival vibe going into the night by hosting jam sessions and other concerts. And recently the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events has partnered with local venues and organizations, via the Citywide Jazz Community Funding Program, to present free concerts around town in the days leading up to the fest.
One show of special note this year is an Elastic Arts set on Tuesday, August 29, by fearless free improvisers Extraordinary Popular Delusions, who’ll welcome the return of saxophonist Mars Williams after an eight-month hiatus for cancer treatment. And on Friday, September 1, Mike Reed’s Big Gig convenes a celebratory repertory band that will turn material by Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Michael Moore, and Tobias Delius into a party at the Green Mill. I’ve collected some more highlights from outside the festival below.
Wednesday, August 30
Jazz Festival Citywide: Isaiah ^2 With Isaiah Spencer and Isaiah Collier. 8 PM, Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey #208, free, all ages
Nick Mazzarella, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and Avreeayl Ra 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, 18+
Javier Red Quartet 8 and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct., $20, student $15, VIP $30, 21+
Thursday, August 31
Dave Rempis, Jason Adasiewicz, Joshua Abrams, and Tyler Damon Also streaming live. 8:30 PM, Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey #208, $15, all ages
After Fest Jam Session hosted by Bobby Watson 9 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct., $25, VIP $40, 21+
Friday, September 1
After Fest Jam Session hosted by Bobby Watson 9 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct., $30, VIP $45, 21+
Mike Reed’s Big Gig With Greg Ward, Hunter Diamond, Keefe Jackson, Cole Degenova, and Christian Dillingham. 8 PM, the Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, $15, 21+
Saturday, September 2
