Jazz & Blues Lounge

Chicago has a lot of cool places to see live music but, without a doubt, one of the coolest is Millenium Park, which is right downtown. I meant RIGHT downtown, with the buildings rising all around you, except for the part that points toward the lake, of course. You can sit on the lawn and above you is a metal laticework that has speakers, so you can see the stars and the buildings and still hear the music. Then there is the pavillion, colored red, each with a great view of the stage. Meanwhile, the stage …read more

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Jazz in Chicago (JIC) is an organization I was busy raving about just yesterday. It’s an organization dedicated to promoting jazz and jazz music in and around Chicago. They sponsors and put together and promote all kinds of jazz performances and jazz education programs. They are a very cool organization and they do good work for a form of music that far too many people don’t know enough about. Too many people find jazz intimidating or off-putting and that’s too bad.
One of the up-coming events is the performance of the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble. …read more

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The flute is not nearly appreciated enough, at least in my opinion, as a jazz instrument.  I know many people who have played the intstrument and most of them seem convinced the instrutment is meant to be played for classical music purposes only.  This is too bad because the flute can be a great jazz instrument just like a trumpet, sax or piano.
Chicago just happens to be the stomping ground of one of the finest jazz floutists and this weekend looks to be a busy weekend for her.  Nicole Mitchell is her name and she was even this week’s cover …read more

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