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All in Festivals
Tail Dragger Redux
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Reinvigorating the Blues
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Very Bright
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Butterfield Blues Reunion
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Mark Naftalin, who added high octane playing to one of the original incarnations of the Butterfield Blues Band, offered a dazzling two-hour solo piano recital. Why this guy has not issued albums of his great blues piano playing is totally beyond me, particularly because runs an independent record label.
Air and Water Show
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I spent much of the day at the 59th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show. I take in some of the show every year because it takes place right out my front door, but I am not a fan, particularly from a photographic standpoint.
Bughouse Square Debates
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It is probably no longer politically correct to refer to an institution for people with mental health issues as a bughouse, but the "Bughouse Square" nickname for Washington Square Park was an attempt to capture some of the craziness that came with the eccentrics and expressive orators who took park in debates and other public forums the park during the early decades of the last century. Bughouse was then the slang for what would later generations would refer to as the looney bin or Cuckoo's Nest.
Newberry Book Fair
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The Newberry Library is holding its annual book fair this weekend. There are somewhere around 130,000 books, records, and related items for sale. I have to say, book fairs are not my thing, maybe because we already have too many books and records in our house. Despite my reservations, the fair is a big deal. I arrived shortly after the 10AM opening. The first floor was already packed, with people looking for bargains and gems.
Lions Convention
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Just about every event passes through the Trump filter in this day and age. Today, the Lions Clubs International held a parade on Chicago's State Street to commemorate the Chicago-based organization's 100th anniversary. One parade participant proudly told me that the Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, with 1,400,000 members in somewhere around 200 countries. The organization focuses its efforts on visual impairment, hearing loss, disaster relief, diabetes awareness, and other good causes.
Gay Pride Parade
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Everyone knows what happens in Chicago on the last Sunday in June: The Gay Pride parade. Having lived on the periphery of Boystown for over two decades, I've been to my share of Gay Pride parades. Each year the parade is a little more corporate and a little less outrageous, reflecting the mainstream acceptance of gay people.
HPJF
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The 11th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival is just three months away, which is why the annual benefit gathering was held tonight. About 175 people showed up at the Promontory Restaurant, Bar, and Performance Space to celebrate what has become one of the top jazz festivals in the country and certainly the top one in Chicago.
The Tale Dragger
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Whatever. Today, with towel in hand, Tail Dragger gave a mesmerizing performance. On the surface, it was rooted deep in Chicago blues traditions that many others have sucessfully mined over the years. Yet, Tail Dragger is the real deal. There are not too many veterans like him around any more. I am glad I dragged myself out of bed into the heat.
Chicago Blues Festival
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Earlier in the day I had the opportunity to see Big Bill Morganfield, who is Muddy Waters' son. Absolutely terrific. Solid band, talented showman, and great guitar player. He was sitting behind me tonight during Nellie Travis' set. Very nice guy.
Chicago Blues Festival
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Many people expressed a lot of concern when the City decided to move the 2017 Chicago Bluesfest to Millennium Park rather than continuing to use the longstanding location at Petrillo Music Shell and the side stages in Grant Park. People did not want to substitute concrete for grass. Overall, I think the City did a great job in prepping Millennium Park for the onslaught of blues enthusiasts and casual passersby who heard the music wafting from the four stages as they enjoyed the Bean and the Crown Fountain.
Blues in the Schools
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Each year, a group of elementary school students shows attendees of the Chicago Blues Festival what they have learned. Whether or not the next Muddy Waters, Lonnie Baker, or Guy Clark Jr. emerges from the program won't be known for at least a decade or two. In the meantime, the kids are having a rollicking good time. If nothing else, I suspect we will see many of these kinds in the audience in future years.
Sam Lay Tribute
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I spent two hours earlier in the evening at the Chicago Cultural Center enjoying Sam Lay stories, listening to Chicago blues harpist Corky Siegel and Lay perform two numbers together, and watching director John Anderson's terrific new documentary Sam Lay in Bluesland. Those are the component parts of the evening, but so much more was going on.
Precursor to the Bluesfest
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Surprise, Surprise! At about noon, I was within a block of Daley Plaza (the location of the Picasso statue) when I heard the sweet sounds of some Chicago Blues reverberating off the buildings, sounding just like it did when Muddy Waters plugged his guitar into an amp.
Liccione
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It's never to early to celebrate Christmas and the holidays, unless, of course, you are Victoria Boros Liccione, who becomes distressed when merchants begin to display their holiday wares in November before Thanksgiving.
108
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Pick your poison, so to speak. I decided early on that I wanted the image depicted in the cover photograph, but that presents a problem. A photographer's worst nightmare is being relegated to a fixed position. I always say that when photographing in a club or concert hall. By picking this location, I did not have the opportunity to photograph the rally in Grant Park, the parade stepping off at Wrigley Field, or the chaos at the AMTRAK station. Only a media outlet like the Chicago Tribune has the number of photographers to cover all the bases, so to speak.
Indispensable
One of the highlights of this year's Hyde Park Jazz Festival was the opportunity to see and hear the great jazz trumpeter, Tom Harrell, together with TRIP, which also features saxophonist Mark Turner. A tight unit that plays gorgeous music. Still lots of humidty in the air, but the darkness and dark greenish-yellow hues portend Fall.