Von Freeman Stage (North Promenade)
11:30am-12:25pm - Maddie Vogler
With her fine debut album, "While We Have Time" (a "stirring maiden effort" – DownBeat), young alto saxophonist Maddie Vogler deftly combines original songs that reflect on her Cuban roots. A 2019 Jazz Fellow with the Luminarts Cultural Foundation, she'll perform with standout trumpeter Tito Carrillo, whom she studied with at the University of Illinois, guitarist Casey Nielsen, pianist Jake Shapiro, bassist Sam Peters and drummer Neil Hemphill.
12:40-1:35pm - Bethany Pickens Trio
Hearing pianist Bethany Pickens perform, you can't help but sense the presence of her late, greatly missed father, Willie Pickens, who imprinted on his daughter what it takes to be a successful and individual artist. Over the course of her long and varied career (which she has pursued while teaching in our public school system), Bethany has distinguished herself as an accompanist for such greats as Clark Terry, Bobby Watson and Von Freeman and leader of her own groups. Today, she'll be joined by Micah Collier on bass and Jeremiah Collier on drums.
1:50-2:45pm - Big Shoulders Brass Band
Formed in 1999 – they're one of the longest-running brass bands in Chicago – the BSBB lunches on the second-line grooves of New Orleans and dines on Dixieland. It's party music for all occasions. Prepare for them to march through the crowd radiating their footloose energy. The band includes Joe Clark and Millie Ahearn on trumpet; Airan Wright on tenor saxophone; Tim Koelling on baritone saxophone; Dan Sniderman and Matt Davis on trombone; Mike Hogg on sousaphone; Quin Kirchner on snare drum and Andrew Green on bass drum. 3-4pm - Lakecia Benjamin Quartet
3-4pm - Lakecia Benjamin Quartet
With her 2020 breakthrough album, “Pursuance: The Coltranes,” alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin plugged into both the spiritual wellspring that is John Coltrane and the astral expressions of his harpist wife Alice Coltrane – helping in the latter case to elevate a long-neglected artist. Benjamin was primed for stardom when she was severely injured in a car accident. Many artists would have taken months to recuperate; it's a measure of her dedication and tenacity that she was performing songs from the album three weeks later. Now here she is, back at the top of her game, playing in support of her aptly titled 2023 follow-up album, "Phoenix" (and her subsequent live recording of it), which reflects on the achievements of Black women artists in our culture and her own survival. Her excellent band includes pianist Oscar Perez, bassist Elias Bailey and drummer E.J. Strickland.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:15-5:05pm - Tomeka Reid Quartet
As its name makes clear, this is cellist Tomeka Reid's band, performing her compositions. But as she says, "We don't have to be centered around any one person. I want to shift roles between all the musicians." As demonstrated on her exceptional 2024 release, "3 + 3," she couldn't have more ideal partners with which to do so than guitarist Mary Halvorson (like her MacArthur Fellow), bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Having played for more than a decade in each other's bands and other settings, they enjoy the kind of heightened interaction you don't often encounter. "A melodic improviser with a natural, flowing sense of song and an experimenter who can create heat and grit with the texture of sound" (New York Times), Reid has raised her game as a member of such bands as the newly constituted Art Ensemble of Chicago, Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quartet, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble and the Artifacts Trio.
5:25-6:10pm - Billy Harper Quintet
It's a momentous time for Billy Harper. Last year, the tenor great celebrated his 80th birthday. And earlier this year, he marked the 50th anniversary of both his quintet and his influential debut album, "Capra Black," "a seminal recording of jazz’s black consciousness movement" (AllMusic). A native Texan, Harper has drawn meaningfully from his early experiences in the church and the spiritual expression of John Coltrane. It's like "he's praying on the bandstand," drummer Billy Hart said. He has played with such legends as Art Blakey, Max Roach, Lee Morgan, Gil Evans and Randy Weston. Tonight, he'll play his original compositions – an area in which he has never gotten his due – in the distinguished company of trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, pianist Francesca Tanksley, bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Aaron Scott.
6:25-7:25pm - Charlie Sepúlveda & the Turnaround
As suggested by the title of his popular album, "This is Jazz," trumpeter Charlie Sepúlveda is as strongly committed to the sounds of hard bop and swing as he is to the Latin sounds he was raised on – styles with ties to Puerto Rico including bomba, plena and danza. Born in the Bronx, where he performed in his cousin Eddie Palmieri's band, Sepúlveda has for many years lived and taught in Puerto Rico, where he put together his long-running band the Turnaround. His sound on the horn is "miraculously melodious and songful" (Latin Jazz Network). And when his wife Natalia Mercado is featured on vocals, the music attains a soaring romantic intensity. The band also features pianist Emanuel Rivera, vibraphonist Jean Luis Treboux, bassist Gabriel Rodriguez, drummer Francisco Alcalá and congas player Gadwin Vargas.
7:45-9pm - Catherine Russell
One of the latest of late bloomers, singer Catherine Russell spent what for others would be a full career in a backup role, notably with David Bowie, before emerging as one of the best jazz and blues vocalists. She was 50 when she recorded her well-received debut, "Cat," at a studio in Skokie. Since then, she has captured listeners with her crowd-pleasing style, releasing one praised album after another and contributing to projects including the soundtrack of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and the the Millennial Territory Orchestra's "Good Time Music." She is "the greatest of all contemporary blues singers," wrote Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal. Tonight, she will deepen her Windy City ties with a band including brilliant pianist and Hammond B-3 organist and former Chicagoan Ben Paterson and guitarist and Green Mill regular Joel Paterson (no relation), Israeli-born bassist Tal Ronen and Portlander Domo Branch on drums.
WDCB JAZZ - LOUNGE LINE-UP
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2024 (South Promenade)
6:45-7:45pm - Bonzo Squad
4:30-6:15pm - The Bruce Henry Quintet
2:15-4pm - Calligram Records Showcase
12-1:45pm - Sanctified Grumblers
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