SHOWTIMES:   6:00PM-7:15PM & 8:15PM–9:30PM

Geof Bradfield

Date

Feb 22 2025

Cost

$20.00

Showtimes:   6:00pm-7:15pm & 8:15pm-9:30pm

“Reedist Geof Bradfield is a Chicago treasure. The top-notch band—with Johnson, drummer Hall, bassist Clark Sommers, and guitarist Scott Hesse—embraces a classic Chicago aesthetic, spiked with the blues, unfussy in its attack and arrangements, and wide-ranging in the leader’s compositions.” -Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street

Saxophonist and composer Geof Bradfield blends modern jazz, African rhythms, and the roots music of his native South into a style that is “explicitly adventurous and forward-looking” (AllAboutJazz.com). Born in Houston and based in Chicago, Bradfield has performed throughout North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, sharing the stage and recording studio with artists such as Randy Weston, Dana Hall, Clark Sommers, Brian Blade, Ben Goldberg, Anna Webber, Orrin Evans, Jeff Parker, Matt Ulery, and Ryan Cohan. His work is featured on 50+ CDs including ten albums as a leader that have garnered critical accolades from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and NPR. He has received grants and awards from Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DCASE, Illinois Arts Council, and the Mellon Foundation. The Downbeat Critics Poll has named him a Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist and Arranger multiple years.

Geof Bradfield’s work as a composer and performer on saxophones and clarinets embraces intersections of modern jazz and other streams of African Diaspora music, drawing inspiration from Charlie Parker, Melba Liston, Lead Belly, Shona mbira music, and Gullah spirituals.

Born in Houston, TX, Bradfield has performed throughout North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, sharing the stage with artists such as Randy Weston, Dana Hall, Clark Sommers, Brian Blade, Anna Webber, Orrin Evans, Jeff Parker, Matt Ulery, and Ryan Cohan. His work is featured on 50+ CDs including eight albums as a leader that have garnered critical accolades from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and NPR.

Nate Chinen describes his Yes, and… Music for Nine Improvisers (Delmark Records) as “an album of chamber-esque color and oft-surprising texture, because Bradfield is the sort of composer who creates room for departure.” He has received grants and awards from Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DCASE, IAC, and the Mellon Foundation. The Downbeat Critics Poll has named him a Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist and Arranger multiple years. Bradfield is Professor of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University and a frequent teaching artist at national and international venues.

“Geof Bradfield has drawn plenty of praise for his work as a reed soloist, and it’s all deserved… But in the last few years, Bradfield has made just as much impact with his precise and colorful writing, in compositions that evoke a vivid sense of place through the same mixture of detail and sweep.” Neil Tesser