Jazz & Blues Lounge

Well, my adventure at the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival is over for another year. I had such a blast. Folks, this is the largest free blues festival in the country. It is a festival that, somehow, manages to get better every year. You will have to pay through the nose to get food and drinks, and on a hot day like this, you’ll need that, but the music more than makes up for it.
When I first got there I was just in time to catch most of Shorty Mack and his Magnificent R&B Blues Band …read more

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If this works the way the Utterz people say it will, you should be able to hear my posts live from the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival on Saturday June 7, 2008. My posts should all be there for your listening enjoyment. The mainstage stars for June 7 are Buckwheat Zydeco, but there are 7 stages of great music.

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Well, I am running into some minor problems with the software that would have, hopefully, allowed me to sort of broadcast live from the Chicago Blues Festival. Apparently the people at WordPress, who allow me to blog, haven’t caught up with the new technology that would allow me to, essentially, turn voicemails into text that you could read here as I am standing in downtown Chicago at the Chicago Blues Festival.
Needless to say, I find this very disappointing. I was hoping to update the blog throughout the day and now I will just have to try …read more

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The biggest music festival in the Chicago area is about to start this week. OK, Lollapalooza might be a tad bigger, but outside of that, this one this the biggie. I do plan to be there, at the very least on Saturday. I hope to check out a lot of the music and report back about what happened here and I may have even found a way to do it FROM the festival, but we’ll have to see how that works.
The whole show opens up with the great Johnny Winter. There are multiple stages as well. …read more

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It is hard to imagine thinking about the start of summer.  This is particularly true of those of you currently buried in snow and those of us here in Chicago where the temperatures are struggling to get above freezing and the forecast calls for more snow.  But, before you know it, summer will indeed be here and that means it is nearly time for the Chicago Blues Festival.
Chicago, I have to admit, plans out the festivals it has pretty well.  The official start of summer is the Blues Festival which usually runs in May or early June.  Somewhere in the …read more

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Well, we have made it to another Friday.  Here in the city of Chicago, it is once again frozen tundra outside my window.  It’s about as cold as it can be without actually freezing matter completely solid. 
So, it may be time to head out to a jazz or blues club.  There are lots of great shows and they are always warm (well, there are ALWAYS exceptions).  You can check out further performances by clicking HERE and checking out their calendar.
JAZZ
January 25, 2008
Andy’s Jazz Quartet
Andy’s, Chicago
January 25, 2008
Mike Smith Quartet
Andy’s, Chicago
January 25, 2008
Jazz Institute of Chicago Presents Annual Jazz Fair
Chicago Cultural …read more

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As I was posting the activites for the weekend yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that the information about what was happening at The Velvet Lounge indicated that it was happening at its “new location.”  Now, I have known that the Velvet Lounge was moving because it was all over the website for the pre-eminent jazz club in Chicago.  So, I decided to do a little investigating.
First off, you can click HERE for the Velveg Lounge website.  Check it out.  It’s a great place. 
It turns out, the Velvet Lounge has been operating at its new location, at 67 E. Cermak …read more

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