Chicago Jazz Festival

Shortly after Duke Ellington's death in 1974, a festival was organized to honor him in Grant Park. More than 10,000 jazz fans attended, and it became an annual event, attracting crowds of up to 30,000. In 1978, another group organized a Grant Park festival to honor John Coltrane. When, in 1979, the Jazz Institute of Chicago began preparations for its own Grant Park Festival, which would have resulted in three separate jazz festivals being held in Grant Park at the end of August, the Mayor's Office of Special Events stepped in and joined the three different festivals together into the Chicago Jazz Festival, which would present a week of free jazz performances. That first Chicago Jazz Festival included an Ellington Night, a Coltrane Night, and five other programs put together by the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Held at Grant Park's new Petrillo Music Shell, first season performers included: Von Freeman, Art Hodes, Benny Carter, McCoy Tyner, Billy Taylor, Mel Torme, and Benny Goodman; and the festival drew 125,000 festival-goers over its seven nights.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicago.gov/content/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_jazz_festival2.html|title=History of the Chicago Jazz Festival|website=City of Chicago|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web | url=http://www.jazzinchicago.org/files/chicagojazzfestival1979-2008.pdf | title=Chicago Jazz Festival 1979-2004-updated (to 2008) | publisher=Chicago Jazz Festival | accessdate=August 15, 2019 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614061320/http://www.jazzinchicago.org/files/chicagojazzfestival1979-2008.pdf | archivedate=June 14, 2019 |url-status=live }}

File:20070901 Chicago Jazz Festival at Petrillo Music Shell.jpg]]

For many years, the entire evening Festival performances were broadcast live, coast-to-coast on 180 Public Radio Stations. Later on, highlight shows were assembled for later broadcast, until WBEZ abandoned its long-time jazz broadcasting.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-xpm-2013-08-23-ct-ae-0825-jazz-festival-20130823-story.html|title=Dear Jazz Fest: Nice move-- here are 10 more to make|first=Howard|last=Reich | authorlink = Howard Reich |work=Chicago Tribune |date=August 23, 2013|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}

Each year after the concerts are over, jam sessions, sometimes running late into the night and early morning, are hosted in various nightclubs by numerous prominent Chicago jazz musicians such as {{interlanguage link|David Boykin|de}}, the late Fred Anderson, Dana Hall, Karl E. H. Seigfried, and {{interlanguage link|Keefe Jackson|de}}.{{cite web | url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sidebars/music/jazzfest07 | title=The Reader's Guide to the Chicago Jazz Festival | work=Chicago Reader | date=August 31, 2007 | author=Peter Margasak and John Corbett | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516205851/http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sidebars/music/jazzfest07/ | archivedate=May 16, 2008 |url-status=dead}}

The Jazz Institute of Chicago has continued to program the Chicago Jazz Festival every year, through at least 2024.{{Cite web |date=2019-12-23 |title=Chicagoan of the Year Heather Ireland Robinson nimbly guided the Jazz Institute of Chicago through its 50th anniversary celebrations |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/howard-reich/ct-ent-coty-jazz-robinson-1229-20191223-hu5zkkglpvchfibvhptr3rt5vq-story.html |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=Chicago Tribune}} The festival is now part of a summer-long series of concerts and festivals sponsored by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, including Taste of Chicago and the Chicago Blues Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicago.gov/content/city/en.html|title=City of Chicago Home|website=City of Chicago}}

In 2017, the festival moved from Grant Park's badly aging Petrillo Music Shell and its side stages, where it had been held for more than 30 years, across Monroe Street to Millennium Park, where artists appeared at several performance pavilions as well as at the nearby Chicago Cultural Center, Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University, and several other locations.{{cite web | url=http://jazzinchicago.org/jazzfest/ | title=Chicago Jazz Festival: August 29 – September 1, 2019 | publisher=City of Chicago | work=Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events | accessdate=August 15, 2019}} Though this provided better acoustics in the newer venue, some critics complained that the new arrangement unnecessarily scattered the performances, making it harder for attendees to hear some of the sessions because of the distance between the venues.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the jazz festival went on hiatus in 2020, and was presented in a scaled back version in 2021, but returned with a full slate in 2022.{{cite web |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/summer-festivals-chicago |title=Local News: Chicago's Spring And Summer Festivals Returning In 2022, After Two-Year COVID Hiatus |date=February 3, 2022 |website=CBS Chicago |access-date=April 4, 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://news.wttw.com/2022/02/03/summer-fests-air-and-water-show-return-chicago-after-pandemic-hiatus-lightfoot-announces |title=Summer Fests, Air and Water Show to Return to Chicago After Pandemic Hiatus, Lightfoot Announces |first=Heather |last=Cherone |date=February 3, 2022 |website=WTTW News |access-date=April 4, 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagojazz.com/post/2022-full-schedule-for-the-chicago-jazz-festival |title=2022 Full Schedule for the Chicago Jazz Festival |date=July 25, 2022 |website=Chicago Jaz |access-date=April 4, 2023}}

Performers have included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Anthony Braxton, Betty Carter, Lionel Hampton, Chico O'Farrill's big band, Jimmy Dawkins, Johnny Frigo, Slide Hampton, Roy Haynes, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, B. B. King, Count Basie, Sun Ra, Stan Getz, Jimmy Smith, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Burrell, Ornette Coleman, and many others.

• List of festivals in Chicago
• Music of Chicago

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.chicagojazzfestival.us/ Chicago Jazz Festival]
• [http://www.jazzchicago.net/reviews/2009/JazzFest2009.html Photos and Video Interviews from 2009 Fest]
• [http://www.jazzchicago.net/reviews/2008/JazzFest08.html Photos of 2008 Fest]
• [http://www.jazzchicago.net/jazzfest2007.html Photos of 2007 Fest]
• [http://www.jazzchicago.net/jazzfest.html Photos of 2006 Fest]
• [http://www.jazzinchicago.org/files/chicagojazzfestival1979-2008.pdf Chicago Jazz Festival Line-ups, 1979-2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614061320/http://www.jazzinchicago.org/files/chicagojazzfestival1979-2008.pdf |date=2019-06-14 }}
• [https://jazztimes.com/reviews/concerts/review-the-2015-chicago-jazz-festival/ JazzTimes Review of 2015 fest, by Philip Booth]

{{Grant Park}}{{Chicago}}{{Music venues of Illinois}}{{Jazz}}

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Category:1978 establishments in Illinois

Category:Recurring events established in 1978

Category:Jazz festivals in the United States

Category:Music festivals in Chicago

Category:Summer festivals