The Chicago Jazz Ensemble? (CJE), conducted by Jon Faddis, continues its 2005/2006 season with a Salute to New Orleans at HotHouse, April 6 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is $15 Tickets at Door.; From the Windy City to New Orleans with Love at Rubloff Auditorium, April 7 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $35 adult/$12 student/$5 Columbia students.
“This is truly a special time for the CJE,” said artistic director and conductor Jon Faddis. “In a continuing effort to support the post-Katrina recovery of New Orleans, we welcome a wonderful group of Crescent City musicians and educators to Chicago. Then, later in the month, one of my dear friends and colleagues, Dr. Billy Taylor, comes out of retirement to join us for a spectacular evening of big band arrangements of some of his great compositions.”
At HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo, on April 6, the CJE focuses on the music of New Orleans, the history of the city and the future of the area and its people. The CJE hosts jazz masters and instructors from the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp as well as the Camp’s founder and director Jackie Harris, who has been working at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center since being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Joining the effort to support the musicians and residents of the area is Phoebe Jacobs, jazz advocate, executive vice president of the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Educational Foundation, Inc. and personal friend of the Armstrong’s.
From the Windy City to New Orleans with Love, April 7 at Rubloff Auditorium, 220 South Columbus Drive, celebrates the relationship between Chicago and New Orleans. The jazz masters and instructors from the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, along with Jackie Harris and Phoebe Jacobs, return for another evening of stellar music. The Summer Camp was established in 1995 to honor Armstrong and perpetuate the legacy of jazz. The annual three-week program hosts musicians from ages 10 – 20 in daily master classes in vocals, composition and jazz history. Jon Faddis served as artist-in-residence for the program in 2002, and Faddis and the CJE are supporting efforts to make sure the program continues in 2006 and beyond.
The Camp’s faculty, under the leadership of saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan, is a Who’s Who of New Orleans jazz royalty. Joining Professor Jordan in the Windy City will be clarinetist Alvin Batiste, trumpet master Clyde Kerr, Jr. and vocalist Germaine Bazzle. The program will include Duke Ellington’s “New Orleans Suite” and Alvin Batiste’s arrangements of “The Missy Strut” and “Coltrane’s Countdown.”
“Together as a group for the first time since Katrina struck last August, this weekend in Chicago will be more than sharing our musical heritage; it will be a beautiful reunion of colleagues, kindred spirits and good friends,” explained Jackie Harris.