Lucky for Chicago audiences, anniversary years abound this year.
The obvious one, of course, is America250. But we also continue to celebrate the centennials of musical Americans, from Miles Davis to venturesome 20th-century composer Morton Feldman. And Chicago jazz is carrying forward the momentum of the recent International Jazz Day, itself presented in an anniversary edition.
That’s left us with a summer calendar even denser than usual, with still more programming to be announced. Just a few highlights in a season to remember:
Two hundreds
If it were Miles Davis’s or John Coltrane’s centenary alone this year, the jazz calendar would already be awash with events. But it’s both, which means we get head-spinning bills like this one, featuring the inexhaustible trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard and ’Trane heir Ravi Coltrane. “Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane: Celebration of Miles Davis and John Coltrane Centennials” is 7:30 p.m. at the Martin Theatre, Ravinia Festival, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park; $76 at ravinia.org
Take it slow
Tenorist Melissa Aldana is everywhere — most recently onstage at Lyric Opera of Chicago for International Jazz Day. She returns to tour “Filin,” a captivating ballad release on Blue Note that has the makings of a modern-day classic. The Melissa Aldana Quartet plays June 4-7 at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct.; $30-$50 at jazzshowcase.com
America250 at the CSO
Some of the Chicago Symphony’s more interesting concerts of the season are crammed at its very end, coinciding with this summer’s red, white and blue elephant in the room. In early June, CSO and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra unite onstage under the baton of Marin Alsop, also taking her last stand as chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival. For that program, Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis replaces his previously scheduled Symphony No. 5, a CSO co-commission, with his Symphony No. 4, “The Jungle.” The following week, two Chicago institutions unite when the Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir joins the CSO onstage, along with artist-in-residence-to-be Jean-Yves Thibaudet and conductor James Gaffigan.
At the end of the month, Chicago-born actor Harry Lennix takes on Copland’s narrated “Lincoln Portrait.” The program also includes Duke Ellington’s “Harlem,” former CSO resident composer Jessie Montgomery’s “Banner” and Charles Ives’ “Three Places in New England.”
“Alsop Conducts Adams, Copland & Marsalis” runs June 4-6 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave; $49-$325. Then “Gaffigan, Thibaudet & Bernstein,” runs June 11113; $39-$249; and “Lincoln Portrait & Ellington Harlem” is June 18-21; $39-$225, all at cso.org
B-day crash
Give the drummer some, and then a little extra: It’s the essential Charles Heath’s 50th birthday. He celebrates alongside the Ramsey Lewis Legacy Band, after sharing a bandstand with the late, great pianist/composer for more than a decade. “Charles ‘Rick’ Heath IV 50th Birthday Bash” is June 11-14 at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct.; $25-$45 at jazzshowcase.com
Composer of the moment
A highlight of the Grant Park season comes early on: Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Conquest Requiem,” one of the great choral-orchestral works of our age. Frank’s music has been a Grant Park Music Festival stalwart for years, but it’s reaching new audiences: Her opera “El último sueño de Frida y Diego” opened at both Lyric Opera and the Met this year, and she just won a Pulitzer Prize for her orchestral work “Picaflor: A Future Myth.” At 6:30 p.m. June 12 and 7:30 p.m. June 13 at Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph St.; free lawn admission with reserved seating ($28-$119) at grantparkmusicfestival.com
Summer opera, supersized
In a dire environment for the performing arts — and, it seems, opera in particular — what a balm it is to see two local institutions on the up-and-up. Period company Haymarket Opera routinely sells out DePaul’s Jarvis Opera Hall; it heads down the hallway to the three-times-larger Gannon Concert Hall for its presentation of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s five-act “David et Jonathas” (1688). Opera Festival of Chicago, a summer newcomer, is also leveling up, presenting “La bohème” and Francesco Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” at the North Shore Performing Arts Center in Skokie. (For reference, “Adriana” was last on the Lyric stage in 1957.)
“David et Jonathas” will be 2 p.m. June 21 at Holtschneider Performance Center, 2330 N. Halsted Ave.; $39-$95 at haymarketopera.org. The Opera Festival of Chicago runs June 26 to July 3 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; dates, showtimes and tickets ($50-$118) at operafestivalchicago.org
Lizzo and Lim
One of summer’s hottest tickets? The unveiling of Ravinia’s refreshed pavilion. The CSO performs with two superstars who nod to the suburban festival’s breadth: pianist Yunchan Lim and pop star Lizzo (herself a classically trained flutist). As the cherry on top, soprano Janai Brugger will be the one to inaugurate the new stage, singing the “Star Spangled Banner” in an arrangement by former CSO music director Frederick Stock. 6 p.m. July 11 at the Hunter Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park; $35-$144 at ravinia.org
A new label, already vital
Calligram Records, founded by saxophonist Geof Bradfield and trumpeter Chad McCullough, has become a welcome platform for of-the-moment Chicago jazz. It celebrates three years with a mini-fest at Andy’s, featuring artists from across its already-deep catalog. “Calligram Records Anniversary Festival” runs July 29 to Aug. 1 at Andy’s Jazz Club, 11 E. Hubbard St.; $20 admission per set, late-night jam sessions $10 at andysjazzclub.com
Klaus meets Ravinia
Klaus Mäkelä’s CSO engagements are steadily mounting as his 2027 assumption date as music director nears. That includes two back-to-back Ravinia stands in August. What will the CSO’s favorite Finn think of balmy, buggy Ravinia evenings? Only one way to find out. With “Snowy Sounds of Sibelius and Strauss” on Aug. 6, and “Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Debussy” on Aug. 7, both at 7:30 p.m. at the Hunter Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park; $17-$124 at ravinia.org
Chicago Jazz Festival headliners
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events has announced the Pavilion acts for the Chicago Jazz Festival, touching down — as usual — at Millennium Park on Labor Day weekend. Sept. 3 welcomes singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap, performing in their usual duo, as well as vibraphonist Joel Ross’s Good Vibes band. Sept. 4 is pianist Robert Glasper, immediately preceded by Chicago bassist Emma Dayhuff. The Davis centenary keeps rolling with the Miles Electric Band on Sept. 5, plus sets by mallet virtuoso Patricia Brennan and singer Paul Marinaro. As is also customary, a Latin jazz set forms the grand finale, this time by éminence grise Paquito D’Rivera, on Sept. 6; a few hours before, saxophonist and 2024 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz Isaiah Collier reprises his Coltrane tribute on the Pavilion stage. Running Sept. 3-6 at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph St.; free, more at ChicagoJazzFestival.us
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
