The Chicago Jazz Festival, the city's longest-running music event (and No. 5 on the list of festivals in our Top 100 Events), celebrates 30 years starting tonight. The proceedings kick off at 6:30 p.m. with a performance by renowned jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the new Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The concert series then moves to Grant Park for shows Friday through Sunday.
Taking place on three stages throughout the park, the Chicago Jazz Festival features free performances and activities from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Notable concerts include Jazz Festival artist-in-residence Edward Wilkerson Jr., a Chicago-based composer, musician, and instructor, and legendary saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman, who closes the festival Sunday night.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Jazz Festival, organizers asked several musicians (including Gerald Wilson, T.S. Galloway, Vijay Iyer, and Dave Douglas) to compose pieces especially for the milestone event. This year's event also sees the addition of an art fair located in the park's rose garden near Buckingham Fountain, as well as a new kids' activity area.
The festival is an opportunity for Chicago to show off its jazz roots with a series of events in the days leading up to the event, including a "Made in Chicago" concert, which took place on Monday in Millennium Park, and last night's "Jazz Club" tour, a partnership between the Jazz Institute of Chicago and Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Company, which outfitted its fleet of 30 trolleys with soundtracks of jazz musicians playing at this year's festival.
The Chicago Jazz Festival is produced by the Mayor's Office of Special Events and programmed with the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Sponsors include the Chicago Transit Authority, The Chicago Tribune, CLTV, Comcast, Communications Direct, DownBeat magazine, Hinckley Springs, Jazz Times magazine, National City, Pepsi Cola, TAVA, and WGN Television.
