gram JAZZ PROMOTING AND NURTURING JAZZ IN CHICAGO JANUARY 2021 WWW.JAZZINCHICAGO.ORG ANNUAL JAZZ LINKS JAZZ MASTERS RESIDENCY PROGRAM RETURNS ONLINE BUT STRONGER THAN EVER FOR 2020-2021 8-WEEK PROGRAM OFFERS INSTRUCTION BY 7 DISTINGUISHED MUSICIANS AT 8 CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS With such popular veteran artists as Maggie Brown, Victor Garcia, Ernie Adams and Philip Castleberry as learned participants, the Jazz Institute of Chicago's 2020-2021 Jazz Links Jazz Masters Residency Program continues in the new year for eight weeks at eight public high schools citywide. Shifting from in-class lessons to online presentations as a result of Covid-19, the program is an online collaboration between the working jazz artists, students and music teachers. "Our overall aim is to encourage imaginative thinking," said Diane Chandler-Marshall, the JIC's Director of Education and Artist Development. "And not only on the part of the students, but also the jazz artists in residence and the teachers." Some of those teachers expand their skills by adding jazz training to their classical backgrounds. That spirit of creativity is represented in the videos produced for future jazz players and their instructors by the Jazz Masters, which range from lessons in the history of jazz and blues to the "circle of fourths" to the essentials of a good jam session. "Sadly, Top row (left to right): Ernie Adams, Ruben Alvarez, Maggie Brown, we can't be together in person," said Philip Castleberry. Bottom row: Victor Garcia, Darius Hampton, trumpeter and band leader Garcia. "But Thaddeus Tukes. hopefully the video will serve you well in your musical journey." The program also strives to promote a positive self-image for students in regard to their cultural heritage. The individual schools are able to shape the lessons to their needs. For example, at Eric Solorio Academy, located in Gage Park on the Southwest Side, the demand is for Latin jazz instruction – and so the great percussionist Ruben Alvarez is in the teacher's chair. He is a stalwart in the longstanding band Chevere De Chicago and director of the Latin Jazz Ensemble at Roosevelt University and also teaches at Columbia College Chicago. Morgan Park High School, located on the far South Side, wanted someone to teach composition, a role that continued on page 2 JAZZ IN CHICAGO JANUARY 2021 2 continued from page 1 is more than ably filled by saxophonist Darius Hampton. A member of the South Side Big Band, he teaches at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music – and helped the JIC establish its well-attended annual summer program, the Straight Ahead Jazz Exchange. In transitioning to online sessions, the Jazz Institute learned from monthly online showings of the jam sessions it presents at the venerable Jazz Showcase in which student musicians get to perform with world-class professionals in the Jazz Links house band. The sessions have reached a surprisingly wide audience, not only in Chicago, but in distant locales. "We've been able to not only share the music, but also raise the Chicago jazz community's profile as one of the most caring and involved," said Chandler-Marshall. "This is a really close-knit community, one that feels like family. There's not the same level of competitiveness there is in other places. Our artists are committed to sharing their gifts, passing tradition on and keeping it alive." Here is the complete lineup of instructors for the 2020-2021 Jazz Links Jazz Masters Residency Program: • Eric Solorio Academy -Ruben Alvarez • Lincoln Park High School- Philip Castleberry • Mary Lyon School - Thaddeus Tukes • Senn High School - Victor Garcia • Whitney Young Magnet High School - Ernie Adams • Pritzker College Prep - Darius Hampton and Thaddeus Tukes • Morgan Park High School - Darius Hampton • Lindbloom Math and Science Academy - Maggie Brown The Jazz Institute of Chicago's "Jazz Links Education Program" is an educational music resource/tool for Chicago Public Schools students, teachers and schools. Working with local and nationally known Jazz Musicians/ Educators the program is designed to encourage imaginative thinking, creativity, a positive self-image and respect for a student's own and other's cultural heritage. The strength of our program is that it is a holistic approach to musical education and introduces students to a rich and comprehensive experience of learning, performing, and engagement with working jazz musicians. A diverse set of programs creates a pathway for the student and their teachers to receive Chicago's jazz legacy directly transmitted through engagement with its living musical legends who serve as mentors in our programs. In addition to building student confidence in their performance, the development of leadership, communication, critical thinking and team-building skills are other notable outcomes of the program. The Jazz Institute’s "Jazz Links Education Program" fosters creative and expanded opportunities for school-aged youth by increasing the impact of existing jazz programs through artist residencies. We provide alternative approaches for addressing achievement gaps in disparately-impacted students, thus providing a high- quality foundation for the instruction of all students. n “WHEN JUSTICE IS THE MESSAGE” FROM THE JAZZ KITCHEN EXPLORES CUISINE, CIVILIZATION INTERNET DISCUSSION FROM HYDE PARK JAZZ FEST FEATURES DANA HALL, OMAR TATE, AND MONICA HAIRSTON O’CONNELL BY COREY HALL Conjure these challenges, and please choose carefully: You may share your knowledge about Black music, its origins and improvisatory birthmarks, while staring into a computer screen, or… You may go one step beyond ordering coffee, traveling where you will to consume it in its fullest, and really study this crop’s origins. For drummer, ethnomusicologist, and educator Dana Hall, these choices are his passions. Sharing his interests in creative music and the culinary arts, he believes, is actually a social enterprise imparted in a “visceral and cerebral fashion.” continued on page 3 JAZZ IN CHICAGO JANUARY 2021 3 continued from page 2 “Talking about music is very difficult through a screen, especially when you’re trying to engender this type of feeling in others who are at the beginning stages of developing it,” Hall said. “And where did I develop that? How do I get that together in a way that I can articulate it in words to people through a screen? It’s funny that that learning process…has been where I found some joy.” Pleasures such as coffee and chocolate originated in Africa, Hall added. These facts, however, have been muted by cultures that profit from them without acknowledging their origins. Hall, currently Director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University, expressed these observations during “When Justice is the Message,” an installment in the “Jazz Kitchen,” a series presented via the internet by the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Sharing virtual space with Hall for this November 18 broadcast were Monica Hairston O’Connell, series organizer and former executive director of the Center for Black Music Research, and Omar Tate, a Philadelphia- based poet, entrepreneur, and chef. This trio explored multiple socially-sensitive matters, including how the Black literary canon – from Langston Hughes’ actual (or) metaphorical destruction of his books, to the catastrophic tension present in Richard Wright’s Native Son – caused them to assess “institutional knowledge.” (Hall’s multimedia project, “Hypocrisy of Justice,” based on Wright’s novel, was staged in 2015 at Symphony Center.) When offering his observations, Tate, acclaimed for displaying jazz, hip hop and literature appreciations through his culinary craft, revealed one influence that reached back to the late 1800s. (To further dig Tate’s skills, Dana Hall check out Nereya Otieno’s profile published by okeyplayer.com: “His dinners…are forays into the Black American experience, exhaustingly constructed courses with immense depth of flavor that give snapshots of historical events, musical movements, and cultural ideas that have somehow shaped Black life and American society as a whole.”) After having read about Tate’s Clorindy steak tartare – named after Clorindy, an 1898 play co-written by Paul Laurence Dunbar – O’Connell asked, “Is there another dish you’re working on that is in deep conversation with something you’re reading now?” Tate’s initial take addressed Black cuisine being a new concept that is superficial and ego-driven. After Hall intervened and asked for clarification, Monica Hairston O’Connell Tate obliged. “The dishes that I create bounced in between that need to be heard and felt through literature and music and to bring it forward,” he began, before connecting his reaction to Ahmaud Arbery’s murder to his art. “The rhythm of running (and) the…dishes I’ve been thinking about are edible terrariums…because they capture so much breath and…life. I wanted to build…dishes around small, grown herbs that represent landscapes that people would be breathing and then losing breath.” As the conversation approached its coda, O’Connell asked the gents what they would appreciate for Thanksgiving, which would happen eight days after the broadcast. Tate, after assuring her that the question was not corny, as she had feared, referred to the adjective “foodie,” which she stated when introducing Hall. “Do you cook?” Tate asked him. “I do.” “What do you like to cook and eat?” “I like to eat anything that’s good.” Omar Tate continued on page 4 JAZZ IN CHICAGO JANUARY 2021 4 continued from page 3 Exploring non-musical interests, Hall added, has been his thing for the past twenty-five years, when he began studying "Black music, food.. Where there's one, to become a Master Sommelier. He advanced to level two (of four), but further progress would require an invitation from there's the other, right? They delineate restaurants with serious food and beverage offerings. This spaces of Black joy and celebration and presented a problem for Hall.