For years the post- and even preconcert events around the Chicago Jazz Festival have taken on a life of their own, creating in effect a second, further-flung festival to complement the official doings in Grant Park. This year these ancillary programs shoulder a little added weight, because to celebrate the festival’s 20th edition City Hall has chosen to abbreviate it. All city music festivals now must end by 9:30, which lops one slot off each night’s schedule, making the ’98 festival nearly 20 percent smaller than last year’s. This means that just around the time things usually heat up, the park will be closing down. The good news? More time for the wealth of other items on the fest-week agenda.–Neil Tesser
Recommended highlights: the quartet led by semilegendary saxmeister Ron Dewar at Andy’s; the irresistible rectification of the Sabertooth Organ Quartet (featuring B-3 whiz Dan Trudell) at the Green Mill; drummer Damon Short’s quartet at HotHouse; a Southport Records All-Stars gig at the Velvet Lounge, probably starring cyclonic free-jazz tenorist Fred Anderson (the club’s proprietor) and bassist Tatsu Aoki (both of whom will play later in a trio with drummer Chad Taylor); and a double bill featuring the meat-eating saxophone of Sonny Seals and an uninhibited quintet led by trombonist Bill Porter and reedist Rich Fudoli at Green Dolphin Street. Buses are scheduled to leave every 10 or 15 minutes from each location; in the past that’s been a pretty reliable estimate. Call 312-427-1676 or the Jazz Festival hotline at 312-427-3400 or check in at www.jazzinstituteofchicago.org for more info.
And if you want a sneak preview of who’ll be headlining the Jazz Festival in the next millennium, the first Chicago’s Best Teen Sax Player contest winds up Monday, August 31, from 6 to 8 PM. Three finalists compete for the first prize of $1,000, presented by the sponsoring Bloom School of Jazz.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The festival’s early closing time will benefit no one more than Joe Segal and the folks who cram his Jazz Showcase (59 W. Grand; 312-670-2473) for the jam sessions that have become a fest-week given. Segal’s after-hours sets almost always take place under the aegis of a returning jazz legend and frequently attract the world-renowned artists booked for the band shell. This year the requisite legend is marble-toned altoist Bunky Green, who came to maturity here in the 50s and 60s and expanded his style in the 80s to accommodate the inventions of Anthony Braxton; he’ll perform with his former mates Stu Katz on piano and Wilbur Campbell on drums, plus younger veteran Larry Gray on bass. Confirmed sitters-in from the festival proper include trumpeters Claudio Roditi and Frank Gordon, trombonists Frank Lacy and Julian Priester (himself a legendary Chicagoan of the 50s), and Sherman Irby, the alto man in Roy Hargrove’s band (which will remain in town after its festival performance to play the Showcase the following week, September 8 through 13). Unconfirmed, but still in the running: saxists Lee Konitz and Billy Harper and pianist Chucho Valdes and the rest of Irakere. (I’d also be surprised if McCoy Tyner didn’t at least drop by to say hello.)
HOTHOUSE
Wednesday, as it did for the club tour last year, Rituals will host a jam session long on both quantity and quality; the lineup promises only “special guests,” but hints at pianist Jodie Christian, trumpeter Bob Griffin, trombonist Ike Jackson, saxists Edwin Daugherty and Ernest Dawkins, reedist Ari Brown, bassist Fred Hopkins, and drummers Avreeayl Ra and Dushon Mosley, most of whom are members of El’Zabar’s Tuesday-night workshop band. Thursday the after-fest double bill stars the Reggie Nicholson Concept, in which the Chicago drummer knits together the diverse styles of such players as mainstream trumpeter Orbert Davis and free-screeching saxist Vandy Harris. Friday, Nicholson anchors the quartet led by #1 Bold Soul Ed Wilkerson (see festival listing); expect blistering trumpet lines from Rod Mcgaha and the magisterial bass of Harrison Bankhead. They split the bill with Ari Brown’s quartet, with his brother Kirk at the keyboard. Saturday it’s the Out-tet, led by saxman David Boykin, while Sunday brings the Awakening, a Chicago sextet resuscitated after a quarter century of slumber (see festival listing).
With the Jazz Festival turning 20, one can’t help but note some of the other traditions that have grown up around it. New Orleans saxophonist and free-jazz icon Kidd Jordan has been making a festival-week pilgrimage to the Velvet Lounge–the intimate and relaxed near-south-side bar that’s become a hot spot on the map of Chicago’s new-music renaissance–every year since 1992. It began as a visit coupled with the chance to join his contemporary, tenor-sax hero and club owner Fred Anderson, in the occasional onstage free-for-all; it soon became a regular part of the city’s underground jazz festival, with Jordan the featured guest and de facto coleader of the avant-garde jams scheduled for Saturday and Sunday nights. This year he’ll have Chicago mainstays Kirk Brown (piano), Harrison Bankhead (bass), and Avreeayl Ra (drums) as his rhythm section; flutist Michael Mason will also take part and, on Saturday (September 5) only, Anderson will haul his tenor out from behind the bar to raise the stakes. Reedist Ari Brown leads his trio Thursday; Yapree Howell leads the Space Bop Vanguard quartet Friday.
