So the Jazz Institute of Chicago has announced the lineup for the 2004 Jazz Festival of Chicago. Sadly, Steve Lacy was scheduled to be one of the key artists, but he passed away last week. I count myself fortunate to have seen Mr. Lacy perform live a couple of times, once with his long-standing trio at the Empty Bottle, and also in a solo performance at the wonderful Unity Temple jazz series (available on CD from Wobbly Rail).

Looking at the schedule, there are a few interesting things, but there’s also a kind of morbid preponderance of tributes and memorials: “A Salute to the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra,” “Latin Side of Miles,” “Celebrating Count Basie’s 100th Birthday,” “Homage to Art Hodes and Pete Johnson,” “A 100th Birthday Tribute to Coleman Hawkins,” “Bass is the Place: Remembering Malachi Favors Maghostut,” and “Tribute to Fats Waller at 100″
(and, of course, now they’ll probably add one for Steve Lacy). Now, I’m all for respecting the past (and I’m certainly interested in that Malachi Favors thing) but it’s really a shame that the festival is so focused on the past. That’s almost half of the “prime time” slots dedicated to old stuff.

Of course, this is an issue that has been burning me since I discovered the rich and diverse extent of jazz which was neither bebop nor swing nor hot as a DJ at WNUR. Given how marginalized any jazz at all is these days, I have kind of given up the idea that I’d see a whole Chicago Jazz Festival programmed featuring this music (despite the fact that a lot of it has Chicago roots) but still, reading over the program it seemed so blatant that I felt obliged to post.

The other motivation for posting: beginning Thursday, June 17th, I’ll be back on the air at WNUR doing a weekly “jazz” show from 5 am – 7:30 am (GMT-5:00). Tune in at 89.3 FM (Chicago) or online via RealAudio or Windows Media. Tune in and you’ll be guaranteed to hear lots of jazz that you probably don’t think is jazz, mixed in of course with lots that you do.