Star-studded double bill slated for May 26 Jazz on a Summer’s Day Concert

 

Roster of virtuoso musicians featured in seasonal series at the Lakeside Inn  

 

On Sunday May 26, the non-profit arts organization portoluz will present a much anticipated double bill featuring six stalwart members from Chicago’s A-list jazz roster. The concert is part of Jazz on a Summer’s Day, the intimate concert and performances series showcased at the Historic Lakeside Inn.

MAY 26^TH 4PM  EST $15

DOUBLE BILL: ROB MAZUREK AND JEFF PARKER WITH THE CULTURAL ARTS QUARTET

About the artists  

ROB MAZUREK

Working within a multitude of stylistic contexts, electro-acoustic composer/cornetist Rob Mazurek has helped redefine the aesthetic boundaries of artistic expression for well over a decade. Mazurek rose to prominence in the fertile mid-1990s Chicago jazz scene, quickly venturing beyond the traditional tenets of the idiom to become one of the most compelling improvising composers of his generation.

While living in Brazil from 2000 to 2005, Mazurek immersed himself in the sights and sounds of the Amazonian rain forest, the plateaus of Brasilia and the urban intensity of São Paulo. Inspired by these disparate experiences, he constructed exotic soundscapes using such esoteric source material as the sounds of electric eels recorded at INPA research laboratory in Manaus and audio culled from storm systems on the outskirts of Brasilia. It was in São Paulo that he met Mauricio Takara and Guilherme Granado, his partners in the São Paulo Underground, which continues to spur his interest in the Brazilian sensibilities of sound and color.

Since then, Mazurek has expanded his reach. Splitting his time between Chicago and São Paulo, he currently leads and composes for a wide variety of ensembles, including Exploding Star Orchestra, Pharaoh and the Underground (featuring Pharaoh Sanders), Chicago Underground, Pulsar Quartet, São Paulo Underground, Starlicker, each of which possesses its own distinct musical personality.    

JEFF PARKER is a guitarist, composer, educator, and sculptor of sonic textures.  Since 1990, he has focused on being adaptable in musical environments that are constantly changing; he is an improvising musician.  He is also a composer of instrumental songs.         

Recognized as one of contemporary music’s most versatile and innovative electric guitarists, his music is characterized by ideas of angularity and logic, as well as an instantly recognizable tone on the instrument.  He works in a variety of mediums, from Jazz to contemporary music, using ideas informed by innovations and trends in both popular and experimental music.  He creates works that explore and exploit the contrary relationships between tradition and technology, improvisation and composition, and the familiar and the abstract.

His sonic palette may employ techniques from sample-based technologies, analog and digital synthesis, and conventional and extended techniques from his 35 years of playing the guitar.

He is a founding member of the critically acclaimed and innovative groups Isotope 217Ëš and Chicago Underground, and a longtime member of the band Tortoise.  He has released several collaborative albums under his own name.  Currently he has been focusing on solitary work and solo performance – to cultivate and establish an idiosyncratic relationship between electronic and acoustic compositional properties in music and sound.   

JEFF CHAN’S CULTURAL ARTS QUARTET

JEFF CHAN Chicago saxophonist/composer Jeff Chan is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the Asian American experience through music.  He has worked with many of the leaders of the Asian American creative music movement, including saxophonist Francis Wong and bassist Tatsu Aoki as well as some of the top figures in the Chicago music scene such as saxophonists Jimmy Ellis, Ari Brown and Ed Wilkerson, trumpeter Ameen Muhammad, drummer Avreeayl Ra and pianist/bandleader Yoko Noge.

As a composer, Chan has created works for varied and diverse ensembles, from solo instruments to large ensembles, including a musical score for modern dance company Facing East Dance & Music.

Chan is the recipient of awards from Meet The Composer, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Illinois Arts Council.  He has presented and performed his music across the country and in Europe as a leader and guest artist.

EDWARD L. WILKERSON, JR., is an internationally recognized American jazz composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting edge octet, 8 Bold Souls, and the 25 member performance ensemble, Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. One of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Edward Wilkerson Jr., from the ’80s into the new millennium may have become best known as a bandleader and composer, particularly associated with medium- to large-scale projects. He has also been a major presence in Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaching composition at the organization’s music school and serving for a time as AACM president. 

TATSU AOKI – Bassist Tatsu Aoki is a prolific and accomplished musician, composer and educator. He works in a wide array of musical styles, ranging from traditional Asian music to jazz to experimental music and is a much in-demand artist performing on both contrabass and the shamisen (Japanese 3-stringed lute). He has recorded over 100 albums featuring many of the musical legends of Chicago, including Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Don Moye and John Watson Sr. 2006 saw Aoki present his most ambitious work to date, “re: Rooted” a continuation of his “Rooted” composition cycle featuring the MIYUMI Project Big Band at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion. Aoki is the founder and Artistic Director of the Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival.

AVREEAYL RA Chicago master drummer / percussionist AVREEAYL RA was born in Chicago on May 21st, 1947 and still lives there today. He is a renowned musician always in demand among visiting jazz artists in Chicago. Avreeayl’s father, Arthur “Swinglee” O’Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who was mentor to many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore, later the mainstay of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. (Avreeayl reports that John Gilmore had a crush on Avreeayl’s sister and so spent as much time as he could at the family house.) Swinglee O’Neil played in one of Sun Ra’s early Chicago bands, and Sun Ra played in one of Swinglee’s groups as well.

About the JAZZ ON A SUMMER”S DAY Series 

The “ballroom” of the historic Lakeside Inn is a mid-size wooden room filled with arts and crafts era antiques. The ballroom looks out over Lake Michigan and in this cozy and informal setting, the performance unfolds. The magic of the environment, the virtuosity of the musicians, the intimacy of the performance and the natural acoustics of the wooden room conspire to create a deeply meditative experience.

Veteran impresaria Marguerite Horberg owned the fabled nightclub HotHouse in Chicago for many years. HotHouse was one of the world’s premiere stages for Jazz and eclectic contemporary cultural expression. Now Horberg and her new company, portoluz are bringing the same top talent to Harbor Country in a special all-acoustic program. This seasonal series of sophisticated artistry is designed to be unfettered by commercial distractions -making the Lakeside Inn a perfect spot for artistic discovery and adventure.

Featured in this year’s season are some of the music world’s most treasured creative artists. While each performance on the bill is uniquely representative of the genre -jazz/creative improvised music, altogether and over the years, dedicated audiences can appreciate the comprehensive language of the improviser and how the music is continually being advanced through contemporary exploration.  In fact, the point of the series is to take audience members on a journey through modern music and provide opportunities to experience art that they might not otherwise have access to.  

“Crisp dappled sunlight falling on stray notes, lazy phrasing, a serious music lover’s idyll”.

JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY 

SEASON SUMMARY AT A GLANCE  

VENUE:  The Lakeside Inn 15251 Lakeshore Road, Lakeside Michigan

VENUE INFO:   The Lakeside Inn (269) 469-0600  www.lakesideinns.com 

DATE:  Concerts take place on the last Sunday of the month April through September

TIME:  For the gala opening concert 5pm EST all other programs commence at 4pm EST

PRICE:  The gala kick off concert is $25.  Tickets for each other concert in the series is $18 per person; all ages are welcome to attend 

MORE:  Information: portoluz@gmail.com, www.portoluz.org

Sponsors: Greenbush Brewery 

 

 SEASON SCHEDULE