Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Blindfold Test: Buster Williams
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, home of the Chicago Jazz Festival.
(Photo: chicago.gov)The City of Chicago has announced that its annual jazz and blues festivals will not be held for 2021, according to a press release from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office.
Under the heading of “Open Culture” as part of the mayor’s Open Chicago plan, the city will highlight Chicago’s rich jazz and blues scenes in a different way this year.
Vestiges of the pandemic will certainly leave music fans wanting a lot more as two longtime traditions — the Chicago Jazz Festival, which was the first city festival when it began in 1974, and the Chicago Blues Festival, started in 1984 — are put on hiatus this summer.
Instead of three days of festival concerts, each musical genre will receive three hours of programming, with an evening of jazz getting a 5:30–8:30 p.m. slot on Sept. 4 at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Blues will get the spotlight 5:30–8:30 p.m. on Sept. 18.
“Despite the unimaginable challenges that were thrown our way last year, we were still able to persist and come together to slow and stop the spread of this virus and put our city on the right path toward a safe reopening,” Lightfoot said. “Open Chicago — including Open Parks, Open Streets and now, Open Culture — is not only the direct result of these efforts, but it also serves as the latest step in our mission to fully restore a sense of normalcy within our city by bringing back and reimagining some of our favorite summer- and fall-time activities.”
Even so, there will be actual jazz festivals taking place this summer in the Second City. The Jazz Institute of Chicago will present the Chicago Latin Jazz Festival on July 23–24. And The Hyde Park Jazz Festival is scheduled for Sept. 25–26.
Here’s hoping both will return in full force in 2022. DB
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
Butcher Brown, clockwise from top left: Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville and Andrew Randazzo. (Keyboardist Harrison couldn’t make the gig, so special guest Jacob Mann sat in with the band at the Reno Jazz Festival.)
Aug 19, 2025 12:41 PM
The band known as Butcher Brown has enjoyed the last half-decade basking in the glow from the twin engines of critical…
This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.
Aug 26, 2025 1:31 PM
The organizers of Lisbon, Portugal’s Jazz em Agosto Festival assume its audience is thoughtful and independent. Over…
