A Joyful Celebration of Three Chicago Legends!
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gram JAZZ PROMOTING AND NURTURING JAZZ IN CHICAGO MARCH 2019 WWW.JAZZINCHICAGO.ORG A JOYFUL CELEBRATION OF THREE CHICAGO LEGENDS! JAZZCITY 2019: A JOURNEY THROUGH JAZZ – WOMEN OF CHICAGO JAZZ MARCH 8 AT 7 PM Garfield Park Conservatory | 300 N. Central Park Ave. Earma Thompson, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Dorothy Donegan WHAT A TIME THIS IS FOR WOMEN IN JAZZ! kept secret until late in life. Having retired from an The battle for equality continues, but having had to fight active career to raise her son, she didn't release her so long for every opportunity and scrap of recognition, first album as a leader until she was 81. women are finally being acknowledged for their The concert is also dedicated to two women who contributions and heard on their own terms – and not as have made mighty contributions to Chicago jazz through "female jazz artists," but artists who transcend gender. thick and thin: former Chicago Tribune jazz critic Harriet And yet, even as jazz memorializes and elevates male Choice and former Symphony Center and Ravinia Festival legends such as Bird, Duke and Monk, pioneering women jazz programmer Penny Tyler, co-founders of the Jazz such as Lil Hardin Armstrong, Mary Lou Williams and Institute of Chicago. Melba Liston remain unsung and under-appreciated. That, Pickens has had a distinguished career as both a too, is changing. musician and educator. Her dual piano performances On March 8 at Garfield Park Conservatory, two with her late, great father Willie Pickens were much gifted pianists – the veteran Bethany Pickens and the up prized. She has contributed greatly to future generations and coming Alexis Lombre – will help give their female of jazz as an instructor with the Ravinia Jazz Scholars predecessors the attention and respect they deserve by Program, director of the Chicago Public Schools All-City celebrating the contributions of three Chicago icons: Elementary Jazz Ensemble and piano instructor at her — Pianist, composer and arranger Lil Hardin alma mater, Kenwood Academy High School. Armstrong, a key member of Louis Armstrong's Lombre, a product of the Jazz Institute's training historical Hot Five and Hot Seven bands of the programs who studied with Willie Pickens, blends the 1920's and a bandleader in her own right. sounds of Chicago's South Side, where she grew up; — Pianist Dorothy Donegan, a classical prodigy Kansas City, where her mother grew up, and Detroit, as a and protégé of Art Tatum who dazzled audiences student at the University of Michigan. She leads various with her virtuosity and entertained them with bands and works as a side musician. her flamboyance. Pickens and Lombre will be backed by an excellent — Pianist Earma Thomson, an earthy stylist who was band including Pharez Whitted on trumpet, Kaliq a mainstay in Chicago for a half-century – she Woods on clarinet, Junius Paul on bass and Charles accompanied Billie Holiday – but remained a best Heath on drums. n JazzCity is a free concert series initiated in 1997 by the Jazz Institute in collaboration with the Chicago Park District, now in its 22nd season of bringing people together from across the city to listen to Chicago’s top jazz musicians. JazzCity is sponsored by WDCB 90.9 FM and WHPK 88.5 FM Radio and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information visit www.Jazzinchicago.org or call 312.427.1676. JAZZ IN CHICAGO MARCH 2019 2 HEADS UP – JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH IS COMING! BY COREY HALL JAM WITH ALL US MONTH LONG! JAZZCITY: THE BLUES BRANCH - APRIL 5 Ellis Park | 3520 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Jazz and Blues harmonica player Billy Branch is the link that illustrates that the roots of jazz come from the mother tree of the blues. Branch explores this notion with 91 year old guitar wizard George Freeman. "TODAY AT APPLE" JIC BIRTHDAY EVENT - APRIL 11 The Apple Store | 401 N. Michigan Ave. The Apple store on Michigan Avenue will be lit with the sounds of some of your favorite local and national artists celebrating the 50 years of the JIC and the technology that has made Apple an icon of innovation and creative communication. CELEBRATE THE POWER OF JAZZ EDUCATION - APRIL 17 The Standard Club | 320 S. Plymouth Ct. Our annual event will honor two Chicago educators who use their craft and passion to keep music alive for generations to come. JAZZ EDUCATION DAY - APRIL 23 The Jazz Showcase | 806 S. Plymouth Ct. In partnership with WDCB, join sax players Ari Brown and Rajiv Halim as they play and discuss the importance of mentorship, as well as the beautiful intricacies, profound structure and important influences of the form and flows of jazz music. DIGGING OUR ROOTS - APRIL 25 Chicago Cultural Center | 78 E. Washington St. A lively conversation between tenorwoman Juli Wood and jazz journalist, photographer and saxophonist Michael Jackson about the Chicago Sound and the ways in which the particular energy and vitality of Chicago’s urban culture shaped Chicago’s tenor saxophone players’ approach to their horns. INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY - APRIL 30 Location TBA A panel of educators, organizational leadership, visionaries and and musicians will lead an informative and resource-rich discussion on immigration and the role that international artists play on the jazz landscape. Includes performance and jam session. JAZZ IN CHICAGO MARCH 2019 3 FORUM EXAMINES HOW JAZZ MUSICIANS ADDRESS SENSITIVE SOCIAL ISSUES BY COREY HALL MURDERED WHILE WORSHIPPING GOD, THEIR names were chanted by the performer as the song began. Vocalist and composer Rene Marie, honored those indi- viduals almost one year after the June 17, 2015 massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church. Her tribute son, “Be the Change,” performed in Charleston, South Carolina in 2016, had as its purpose, a desire to heal. “I was just trying to process (what happened.) That’s how most of my songs like that come about, where I have complicated feelings inside so that they don’t result in bitterness,” she said. “There is some reflection of love and hope I have for humanity. I definitely wanted to say their names.” Rene marie, Vijay Iyer, Arturo O'Farrill For emphasis, Marie augmented her rhythm section with saxophone, trombone, and trumpet. “I wanted each “That was my dream. That any minute I could just drive horn player to approach the music as if one was the elder, off, and it would end it all. And it would be over. There like the older generation, looking back on past protests was a black cloud over me, like Predator, just somebody and movements to affect a better change for America,” watching me, always, like Big Brother…” she explained. “I wanted it to be as if they were having a Iyer’s initial reaction? conversation, disagreeing here, agreeing there, and coming “We got to the end of that take…and I said, ‘Okay, we to a resolution at the end.” don’t need that on the album,’ ” he recalled. “But she said, Marie shared these feelings during “Jazz in Troubled ‘No, we have to have that on the album, because people Times,” a panel discussion held at the two-day Jazz need to know that this is what this experience is.’ ” Hill, Congress that took place last month in New York. This Iyer added, successfully completed therapy, ceased having panel, moderated by journalist Larry Blumenfeld, also these nightmares, and is now a married mother. “That’s included life observations from pianists Vijay Iyer and another measure of success,” he said. “No one’s going to Arturo O’Farrill. give you a Grammy for that, but that’s real impact.” Creating community through chaos served as a Music with a message cannot be created if the artist is catalyst for Iyer’s Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Project, fearful, O’Farrill stated during his monologue. His Afro- which he recorded with hip hop artist Mike Ladd. This Latin Jazz Orchestra – joined by 50 musicians – recorded recording allowed veterans of color, who had served in Fandango at the Wall: A Soundtrack for the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan, a forum to discuss their experiences. Mexico and Beyond. This album’s inspiration, O’Farrill Confronting complicated issues inherent with this subject, said, came from Jorge Francisco Castillo, who, since 2008, Iyer noted, is an undertaking that, on the surface, receives has hosted a festival where musicians congregate at the minimal attention. border separating San Diego and Tijuana to play Afro- “When any of us chooses to take a stand or engage Mexican music. in work that asks difficult questions, it is rewarded with “I felt this was such a powerful way to make a point,” crickets,” he said. “But then you have to think, ‘What is O’Farrill said. “The point is it’s not physical realities that success?’ You have to think about it differently. I knew divide us; it is (us.) We are our biggest enemies.” going in that this was not a business venture.” O’Farrill then discussed the near-violent response his Iyer then discussed Lynn Hill, a veteran who music received late last year at New York’s Birdland jazz contributed to the album. After reading a poem during club. When introducing “Llegara Llegara Llegara,” he said, a recording session, she revealed that she had repeatedly “I have to rely on this piece because of what’s going dreamt about committing suicide by driving off a cliff. continued on page 7 JAZZ IN CHICAGO MARCH 2019 4 March 10: Three CIty’s Trio, 8:30pm JIC EVENTS & AROUND TOWN March 16: Josh Berman Quartet, 8:30pm March 21: Avishai Cohen Quartet, 8:30pm March 8, (7pm): A Journey Through Jazz – Women of Chicago Jazz, March 23: Stein/Giallorenzo/Kirchen/Kirshner, 8:30pm Garfield Park Conservatory (see page 1) March 27 - 28: Schlippenbach Trio, 8:30pm March 13: (5pm) Jazz Links Jam Session, Jazz Showcase, 806 S.