Name the city most likely to serve as backdrop to the following scenario:
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It’s possible that such a scene could take place in Paris: the French love le jazz Americain, and there are enough world travelers passing through on any given night to populate the above fantasy. Another good guess might be the small city of Perugia, Italy, where each year the Umbria Jazz Festival offers a swirl of postmidnight performances in small rooms that border cobblestone streets. And a popular guess might be New York, where such events are theoretically possible even though the city’s jam-session heyday–when jazz clubs crowded onto each other and “lights up” meant dawn–was 45 years ago.
In other words, there’s really a second jazz festival this weekend, taking place at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, at the Southend Musicworks, and at the Bulls jazz nightclub: an after-hours jam festival such as Chicago hasn’t seen in decades. And while many modern musicians have distanced themselves from the stereotypical jazz life-style epitomized by these packed and noisy early-morning smoke-filled sessions, it remains true that such events can bristle with an intimate excitement that’s simply unavailable on a larger stage, much less the one in Grant Park. The music is still about improvisation; and improvisation still does its reaching and growing in the less formal confines of the after-hours session that remains the music’s laboratory.
In keeping with Southend’s philosophy, the music will be the most adventurous and progressive in the city, and those “hanging around” could include members of the Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra, the Mingus Epitaph band, trombonist Mangelsdorff, and the extraordinary flutist/composer James Newton.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
