While the 18th annual Chicago Jazz Festival lacks some of the creative edge and conceptual savvy of past fests, there is nonetheless plenty of worthwhile music to be heard. In addition to these highlights, you can find Critics’ Choices for the Dizzy Gillespie big band tribute and the Carla Bley Big Band elsewhere in Section Three.
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ARI BROWN QUARTET For years an indefatigable sideman with Elvin Jones, Lester Bowie, and Kahil El’Zabar, Chicago reedist and pianist Ari Brown has finally begun to collect his due. His debut album as a leader, Ultimate Frontier (Delmark), for which this writer contributed liner notes, captures his remarkable range, from blustery hard-bop tenor to hypnotic African-tinged meditations to turbulent soul-searching, yet everything is conveyed in a singular, authoritative voice. Few musicians navigate the murky waters between tradition and the avant-garde with as much confidence, intuition, and accessibility. This quartet is rounded out by bassist Yosef Ben Israel, drummer Avreeayl Ra, and Ari’s brother Kirk on piano–except when multiinstrumentalist Ari himself sits at the keyboard. (Friday, 6 PM, Petrillo Music Shell)
ERIC ALEXANDER & LIN HALLIDAY Decking out Eric Alexander and his elder Lin Halliday in black leather on the cover on the recent Stablemates (Delmark) makes the album look like a Tom of Finland send-up, though the music is straightforwardly modeled on Coltrane and Rollins’s Tenor Madness. On the recording, Halliday doesn’t provide enough of a spark to ignite the proceedings, but with additional support from baritone sax legend Cecil Payne, hard-driving pianist Harold Mabern, former longtime Thelonious Monk bassist John Ore, and drummer Joe Farnsworth, the young lion Alexander should put forth some of the best unadulterated hard bop of the weekend. (Saturday, 12 PM, Jackson stage)
