Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Soul singer Mavis Staples is set to headline the 2018 Chicago Blues Festival.
(Photo: Courtesy Chicago Blues Festival)Mavis Staples tops the bill for this year’s Chicago Blues Festival at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
The festival, which began in 1984, is set to run June 8-10 and features Delmark Records marking its 65th anniversary with a spate of performances on Friday. A tribute to Little Walter is on tap for Saturday. And Fantastic Negrito, who won NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Contest in 2015, is among the Sunday performers, with Staples headlining the evening. The Chicago soul singer issued If All I Was Was Black on ANTI- Records in November.
A more detailed line-up is below.
Friday (65th anniversary of Delmark Records Celebration)
5:30-6:15 p.m.: Corey Dennison Band
6:30-7:15 p.m.: Mississippi Heat with guests Billy Flynn and Giles Corey
7:30-9:30 p.m.: Tribute to Those Who Came Before and Bob Koester
Saturday
5:30-6:30 p.m.: Selwyn Birchwood
6:45-7:45 p.m.: Willie Clayton
8-9:30 p.m.: Little Walter Tribute (featuring Billy Branch, Corky Siegel, Rick Estrin, Sugar Blue and more)
Sunday
5:30-6:30 p.m.: Fantastic Negrito
6:45-7:45 p.m.: Kenny Neal
8-9:30 p.m.: Mavis Staples
For more information about the festival, visit
its website here. DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
