Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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