![]() Their high-energy set included some of the same highlights sampled at the band’s Green Mill appearance last year, this time for a bouncing audience of thousands. But props to Kurt Elling, whose SuperBlue band skidded in to replace her - from Australia, no less. The weekend’s greatest disappointment was a cancellation by singer Dianne Reeves, herself citing personal reasons for pulling out of Friday night’s show. It was a powerful monument, as raw and real as they come. Even in more album-faithful numbers, the quartet approached everything with an engulfing intensity, stoked as if with gasoline by inexhaustible drummer Greg Artry. The ensuing set, dedicated to his father, blazed like an eternal flame. “He’s the person who got me to check out the bass from the very beginning,” Dillingham said. As Dillingham told the audience, however, his week had been anything but celebratory: After the set, he was going to leave to be with his father, who was dying. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)Īnother recently released album, bassist Christian Dillingham’s debut “Cascades,” came out two days before his quartet’s performance at the Von Freeman Pavilion. My favorite acts of the festival both built their sets on records released this spring: saxophonist Walter Smith III, with “Return to Casual,” and songwriter Billy Valentine, reintroducing himself as a jazz singer with “Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth.” Smith wins my award for best group, in a revelatory quartet featuring bassist Harish Raghavan, drummer Kendrick Scott and piano polymath Sullivan Fortner their Friday set was equal parts provocative and profound, often both.Īhmed Benbayla of Springfield relaxes in Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion while attending the Chicago Jazz Festival on Aug. ![]() Most of McCann’s set was taken from her new album “Do I Move You?”, making her among the many artists promoting new albums at the festival. Where Phinn’s rendition seized on youthful virtuosity, McCann’s version - sparse, eloquent and introspective, against a solo bass accompaniment by John Sutton - seemed to peer at the same material with the wisdom of age. Just an hour later, Chicago’s own Tammy McCann sang the same song in her Pritzker Pavilion set. Guitarist George Freeman performs with his nephew, tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, not pictured, on opening night of the Chicago Jazz Festival Aug. It was her first time performing at the Chicago Jazz Festival, which, she admits, was “a little nerve-wracking.”īut when Phinn saw a unanimous standing ovation? “I was like, ‘OK, I did something right,’” she says, cracking a grin. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church in East Garfield Park. The 16-year-old Kenwood junior sings in the school’s concert choir, as well as in the choir at St. “Did you catch her name?” a volunteer working the merch table asked me, winded. The day before, a young singer had brought a crowd of hundreds to her feet with a belting, powerhouse performance of “Feeling Good” with the Kenwood Academy Jazz Band. Of the younger headliners I heard at the Harris Theater Rooftop, I left most impressed by Mxmrys (pronounced “memories”), a vibey, mischievously imaginative four-piece with a forthcoming EP. ![]() ![]() On the other side of Pritzker Pavilion’s stainless-steel crown, dozens of young artists tested their own material in front of a curious audience. ![]() (A fuller celebration on Von’s actual birthday weekend, in October, is planned at the Green Mill.) Guitarist George Freeman - Von’s brother, now 96 - joined the band onstage for a very fitting number, Von’s “Brother George.” When it sounded like his pensive opening solo was winding down, Freeman cheekily flared back, to the delight of the crowd and his bandmates alike. The festival’s first evening honored jazz’s living history, starting with a band convened by tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman to commemorate what would have been his father Von’s 100th birthday year. This is a free festival, and you’ve got excellent musicians. “The Chicago Jazz Festival is absolutely extraordinary. I come from New York - you’re not walking in nowhere for free,” Walker says. $%1 51)-.James Jackson and Janet Walker relax on the lawn while taking in the opening night of the Chicago Jazz Festival in Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion on Aug. ![]()
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