Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
Kandace Springs Sings Billie Holiday
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
Mike Reed will release albums with two bands on 482 Music on Sept. 9. His quintet, Loose Assembly, will put out The Speed Of Change, and his quartet, People, Places & Things, will release Proliferation.
Active in the Chicago jazz and improvised music community for the past decade, Reed has performed with Chicago-based bands like The David Boykin Expanse and Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra. Reed is also the founder of the Emerging Improvisers Organization, a not-for-profit improvised music series, and director of the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Reed’s Loose Assembly release features covers by Ethiopian vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke and Garvey’s Ghost, while PP&T’s Proliferation aims to investigate the under-recognized influence of Chicago’s Jazz scene from 1954-’60. “We tried to re-invent the music we were covering,” said Reed. “In order for it to be as current as it was back then, we had to find ways to incorporate styles and influences of improvising that pertain to us.”
More info: 482music.com
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Springs says of working with an orchestra. “It’s 60 people working in harmony in the moment. Singing with them is kind of empowering but also humbling at the same time.”
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