Harris Theater Rooftop
Young Lions Jazz
11am - Whitney Young Jazz Combo
11:50am - Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Combo
12:40pm - ChiArts Combo A
1:35pm - Lincoln Park High School Jazz Band
2:25pm - Youth Jazz Ensemble of DuPage
3:15pm - Kenwood Academy High School Jazz Band
Von Freeman Stage (North Promenade)
11:30am-12:25pm - Windy City Ramblers Brass Band What better way to ease – make that shuffle – into the day than with the Windy City Ramblers? The rambunctious ensemble, which devotes itself to inspiring and uplifting young people, is an ongoing lesson in style in bridging the traditional and second line music of New Orleans and the sounds of Chicago. Five
trombonists strong – Royce Harrington Turner, Pete Isaac Charles, Norman Palm, Jacob Slocum and Dan Merlo – the band
12:40-1:35pm - Leslie Beukelman & Jeremy Kahn's "Tonight (At Noon)" Charles Mingus and Leonard Bernstein: Not one of the first artistic pairings that comes to mind. But as they demonstrate on their intriguing 2022 album, “Tonight (At Noon),” the creative team of singer Leslie Beukelman and pianist Jeremy Kahn makes a case for the ties between classically attuned jazz giant Mingus and jazz-loving classical idol Bernstein. Among the tunes they’ll draw from are Mingus classics “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and “Weird Nightmare” and Bernstein’s early composition “Big Stuff,” written for Billie Holiday, plus tunes from “West Side Story.’ Joining in the fun will be bassist Larry Kohut and drummer Jon Deitemyer.
1:50-2:45pm - Mike Ross Quartet
Guitarist and singer Mike Ross has a broad musical background that includes writing for the stage at the Goodman Theater and Shubert Theater, touring with “The Wiz,” performing an original tribute to Nat King Cole at the Northlight Theater and touring with artists including Wayne Newton(!), Ramsey Lewis, Ronnie Laws and Angela Bofill. His smooth jazz album, “Four Seasons to Cross,” recorded during the pandemic, reflects on its impact. Today, he’ll lead a quartet including bassist Ron Hall, keyboardist Roger Harris and drummer Malcolm Banks.
3-4pm - James Brandon Lewis Quartet
The rapid emergence of 41-year-oldtenor saxophonist James BrandonLewis has been one of the best recent stories in jazz. His deep sound on tenor, hard-edged but agile, has wowed none other than tenor giant Sonny Rollins. As he demonstrated on his Red Lily Quintet’s 2021
masterpiece, “Jesup Wagon,” and recent gem, “For Mahalia, With
Love,” Lewis is a deep conceptualist, speaking volumes about where jazz is going while providing insightful lessons on where it’s been. Known to the pop
audience through his collaboration with punk’s Messthetics, he will today
lead his long-running quartet featuring pianist Aruan Ortiz, bassist Bradley Jones and drummer Chad Taylor, a former Chicagoan with his own distinctive New York-based band.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:15-5:05pm - Dennis Carroll For years one of the go-to bass players in the city, Dennis Carroll has lent distinction to the bands of artists including Bobby Broom, Ron Blake, Pharez Whitted and Pat through his impeccable time-keeping and deep, melodious sense of swing. He’s all but immune to the blindfold tests: The
moment you hear his tones, you know who’s playing. Today, he gets to do what he doesn’t do nearly enough – lead his own band
5:25-6:10pm - Jeff Parker and New Breed
Since first making his mark in Chicago with Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble, guitarist Jeff Parker has brought to jazz and related forms a
unique inside/outside approach, lyrical restraint and sheer moxie in bridging bop and hip-hop and everything in between. A key contributor to projects by artists including Makaya McCraven, Meshell Ndegeocello and Rob Mazurek, he still may be best known by some for his work with the “post-rock” band Tortoise. But Parker, who moved to Los Angeles a decade ago, has made his most essential music with his atmospheric trio and soulful crossover unit New Breed. His set today with New Breed – Josh Johnson on alto saxophone and keyboards, Paul Bryan on bass and synthesizer and Jeremy Cunningham on drums and sampler – will include songs from his acclaimed 2020 album “Suite for Max Brown.”
6:25-7:25pm - René Marie & Experiment In Truth
There are many terrific jazz singers currently at work, but few that transcend the form and break new ground. René Marie is one of them. “Her torch burns hotter and oft-times brighter than any of her peers,” wrote one critic. A prolific songwriter, Marie didn’t begin singing professionally until she was in her early forties. Her albums on Maxjazz, including “How Can I Keep from Singing” and “Vertigo,” helped put that fledgling label on the map. As fearless as she is fluent, she brings new insight to the sounds of influences including Betty Carter, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald and was nominated for a Grammy for her welcome tribute to Eartha Kitt, “I Wanna Be Evil.” The truth referenced in the name of her band, including drummer and music director Quentin E. Baxter of the popular Gullah-inspired group Ranky Tanky, can be political as well as personal. Long may this experiment run!
7:45-9pm - Kenny Garrett and Sounds From The Ancestors Based on his exceptional skills on saxophone alone, Kenny Garrett ranks as one of the top artists of his generation. Praised in the New York Times as “poised, fast and deft on alto saxophone,” with an “ironbound” sense of timing, he has been widely praised for his inspired embrace of John Coltrane, his onetime boss Art Blakey and jazz-funk. But the 60-year- old artist, a 2023 NEA Jazz Master,
has never rested on his laurels moving boldly from concept to concept and style to style. His 2006 recording, “Beyond the Wall,” was billed as “a musical and spiritual exploration of the connections between China and Africa.” Earlier this year, he released his first electronic album, “Who Killed AI?,” inspired by Andre 3000’s flute project, “New Blue Sun,” and the music of onetime boss Miles Davis. Tonight, he’ll revisit “Sounds from the Ancestors,” his acclaimed 2021
album, on which he celebrates the broad influence of West African and Caribbean sounds. He’ll lead a sextet including pianist Keith Brown, bassist Jeremiah Edwards, drummer Michael Ode, percussionist Rudolph Bird and vocalist Melvis Santa.
WDCB JAZZ - LOUNGE LINE-UP
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2024 (South Promenade)
6:45-7:45pm - Soul Message Band
4:30-6:15pm - Lynne Jordan & the Shivers
2:15-4pm - Charles Heath Quartet
12:00-1:45pm - Samuel Mosching Quintet
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