Michael Zerang’s Blue Lights at the Chicago Jazz Festival

Zerang’s group is comprised of many of Chicago’s most exciting and adventuresome improvisers: saxophonists Mars Williams and Dave Rempis, cornetist Josh Berman and bassist Kent Kessler. Zerang has been a stalwart member of the creative music scene in Chicago, as both a musician and an advocate of the scene. In 1985, Zerang founded the Links Hall Performance Series, in which he presented over 300 concerts in his four year tenure as curator. — Chicago Jazz Festival



The Chicago Jazz Festival‘s organizers have been presenting free concerts in various spots around the city, calling the series Neighborhood Nights. This past Saturday, Aug. 9, the series featured the superb drummer Michael Zerang, playing in front of Logan Square’s Illinois Centennial Monument with a band called Blue Lights. This was a stellar lineup of leading jazz musicians from Chicago — reedists Mars Williams and Dave Rempis, cornetist Josh Berman and bassist Kent Kessler — and it sounded lovely in that park. The group played some original compositions, but it closed with a recognizable melody from the past, Misirlou. — Robert Loerzel, Underground Bee



We'd like to say Thank You to Robert Loerzel for allowing us to use the images and his short report, and to encourage you to visit the Underground Bee blog for more pictures taken on that special sunny evening at Logan Square, but also other concert reviews and misc. commentary on the Chicago arts scene.