I arrived in Chicago over the weekend with great anticipation for a week filled with events tied to International Jazz Day. The big event is on Thursday, April 30th, but there’s plenty to do all week for those who love this music.
I began my day by going to Logan Center for the Arts. Chicago Jazz Philharmonic (CJP) was celebrating the centennial of Miles Davis with Sketches of Spain Revisited. I’ll admit, the idea of revising such a classic work as Sketches of Spain had me skeptical. What needs to be done to this landmark collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans.
Nonetheless, Orbert Davis, a fine trumpeter and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of CJP, replaced the middle three movements (Will O’the Wisp, The Pan Piper and Saeta) with two of his own compositions (Muerte de Matador and El Moreno) and a new arrangement of Isaac Albeniz’s El Albaicin from Iberia.
I wasn’t fully persuaded by the need to add these new works, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate what Davis had accomplished nor what Jorge Amado had done with El Albaicin. The CJP played brilliantly.
In the evening, I joined the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s The Jazz Club Experience for a three-club tour: Reggie’s, Jazz showcase and Winter Jazz Club. I’d never been to any of these clubs.
Upon arriving at Reggie’s (which had three spaces with live music), I was introduced to Garm, an organ trio featuring drums and saxophone. It’s an interesting configuration for a trio and they proved to be just as interesting to listen to.
Upstairs I went to experience Cogset. I’m not sure I have the right words to describe this ensemble. Let’s just use unique for now. I’ll also add interesting. Very interesting.
Lastly, I went back downstairs to listen to Neal Alger who was performing with his quartet. They are a talented guitar quartet, but I only heard a couple tunes before we had to head off to our next stop.
Jazz Showcase was featuring a City-Wide Jam Session with Micah Collier on bass, Brandon Harper on piano, Isaiah Spencer on drums and Greg Ward on alto sax. Sadly, I didn’t catch the name of the trumpeter who seemed to be leading the quintet.
Another sad moment came just three minutes after we arrived when the band announced they were taking a break. It seems as though there wasn’t great communication between the venue and The Jazz Club Experience about arrival times.
With only 45 minutes at each venue, losing nearly 20 minutes of that time to a break seemed like a missed opportunity for everyone.
But the venue was terrific and the music was great. We were told there were a lot of special guests joining them during the night, but we were onto the next club before any of them took the stage.
Our final stop was Winter Jazz Club to hear the Chris White Trio. White leads on piano with Mike Schlick on drums and an amazing bass player whose name is also Mike, but I don’t have his last name. (I’ll work on getting that.) This was straight-ahead jazz with songs by Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and closing out the night with Misty.
All in all, this was a great Day 1 for International Jazz Day festivities. I just have one event today, but will keep you posted.
Main Photo: Jazz Showcase
All photos by Craig L. Byrd