After two daytime sessions--one with Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis on electronics in
jazz; the other a Uri Caine solo piano set--in the Chicago Cultural Center,
Thursday, August 29, events at the Festival's main site, the Petrillo Music
Shell, began that evening with a set by the David Sanchez Quintet.
Also appearing that evening were Patricia Barber, and a quartet featuring
Larry Coryell* and Arthur Blythe*.
[Note: My photos of artists whose names appear with an asterisk in this text
can be seen at Sandy Ingham's review of the
Festival]
Friday evening led off with Bill Holman conducting Bill Russo's Chicago Jazz
Ensemble with Eddie Baker on piano. They were followed by Ray Anderson's Pocket
Brass Band with Lew Soloff, and then by the Ahmad Jamal Trio with (for about 25
minutes) George Coleman*.
Ahmad Jamal's drummer, Idris Muhammed.
The duo of Mal Waldron and...
...Oliver Lake did Saturday's first set in the Petrillo Bandshell. They were
followed by Jimmy Heath* leading, and playing with, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.
Next a really excellent set from vocalist Carla Cook.
The quartet of Wayne Shorter with...
...Danilo Perez was Saturday's final group.
I really should mention a set at the Family Stage late Sunday afternoon: a
re-creation of a Langston Hughes-Charles Mingus collaboration recorded in the
late '50s, Weary Blues. The music was arranged by, and played by a septet
of Chicago musicians led by, trombonist T.S. Galloway. Local poet and professor,
Quraysh Ali Lansana, read Hughes' poems.
Unfortunately, this excellent set overlapped another excellent one--the first
set of the evening at the Petrillo Music Shell, with Chicago senior statesmen of
the saxophone, Von Freeman and Eddie Johnson.
The next set, styled "Jammin' at the Petrillo," had a group of top young
straight-ahead players: Seamus Blake, Russell Gunn, Steve Davis...
...Claire Daly...
...and Eric Reed and his trio, bassist Barak Mori and drummer Rodney Green.
Next up was the N.O.W. Orchestra from Vancouver, Canada, playing the music
of, and led by, George Lewis, with special guests, Chicago avant-garde
veteran saxophonist Fred Anderson and trumpeter Billy Brimfield. (Just short of
a month later, on September 25, it would be announced that George Lewis had been
chosen as a 2002 MacArthur Fellow).
And for the final set, Sphere, with a special guest. Sphere, of course,
consists of Gary Bartz...
...Kenny Barron...
...bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Ben Riley. The group's special guest was
Phil Woods.
These five great musicians brought the 2002 Chicago Jazz Festival to an
absolutely sublime ending.
Mark Ladenson's passion for jazz goes back decades but he's been seriously photographing its players for about 15 years. His photos appear regularly in Cadence and have also appeared in JazzTimes and Coda. His photos, CD reviews, and articles about the Chicago Jazz Festival appeared in Marge Hofacre's Jazz News from 1988 to 2000. His article about, and photos of, the 1987 Chicago Jazz Festival in the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors Journal won that publication's annual best article award.
