I’ve adopted a report card format to keep track of the Latin Jazz presence at major festivals here at LJC. It’s time to break down the facts and examine the honest support of Latin Jazz at jazz festivals. I’ve developed ten categories that ensure the success of Latin Jazz at a festival, assigning each category ten points. I want to be fair and reflect the needs of musicians, audience members, and promoters, realizing that festivals cater to more styles than simply Latin Jazz. Still, I want to keep an eye on festivals and their use of Latin Jazz, hopefully inspiring some reflection, discussion, and eventually changes in the support of Latin Jazz at festivals.

10 – Freebie points for holding a jazz festival at all
10 – Freebie points for simply including Latin Jazz in the festival line-up
10 – Flexible points that can be molded to festival special circumstances
10 – Percentage of Latin Jazz artists in the festival line-up
10 – Inclusion of both local and international Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
10 – Inclusion of both established and emerging Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
10 – Inclusion of a variety of Latin Jazz approaches into the festival line-up
10 – Scheduling of Latin Jazz acts during the festival to ensure maximum visibility
10 – Special event programming for Latin Jazz acts
10 – A Latin Jazz educational component

The Chicago Jazz Festival enters its 31st year in 2009, upholding a long legacy of great jazz in the windy city. The main Chicago Jazz Festival will occur over Labor Day weekend, from Friday September 4th – Sunday September 6th, covering four stages with continuous music. The city’s festival season started on August 1st with a series of events that provided some necessary diversity and built momentum into the Labor Day weekend. In addition, educational activities and cultural events happen year-round. The Jazz Institute of Chicago organizes all these events with a thoughtful and intelligent approach, taking into account the needs of their community and the greater jazz scene. This year, the Institute brought a major sponsor into the festival, as Carefusion provided significant financial backing for the city’s events. Although the festival has never gained the massive reputation of Newport or Monterey, the festival’s long-standing history and careful programming deserves a study. It’s a major event, and Latin Jazz should be represented fairly and intelligently.

So let’s run the 31st Annual Chicago Jazz Festival through the Latin Jazz Report Card . . .

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Freebie points for holding a jazz festival at all
Freebie points for simply including Latin Jazz in the festival line-up
Flexible points that can be molded to festival special circumstances
The report card begins with the freebies, which award 30 points to the Chicago Jazz Festival from the start. The simple fact that the city holds a festival deserves merit, and the fact that they integrate Latin Jazz into that experience also brings credibility. In today’s precarious economic climate, the existence and survival of any jazz festival should be recognized. Chicago doesn’t get bogged down in these details though; they’re offering a free festival to the citizens of their city. Not only can they support and promote great jazz in Chicago, the lack of a price tag opens the door to new listeners and works towards audience development. In an age where we face a gradually declining jazz audience, The Jazz Institute of Chicago sees the bigger picture. This forward thinking viewpoint earns the festival the 10 flexible points without hesitation.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 30

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Percentage of Latin Jazz artists in the festival line-up
The actual inclusion of Latin Jazz artists over the Labor Day weekend is a bit slim and in some ways underrepresented. The festival houses a number of acts, ranging from students groups to professional bands. For our purposes, we’ll focus upon the professional acts, which bring the total number of groups to 33. Within this collection of artists, only two groups represent the Latin Jazz world. We’re looking for 20% of the artists dedicated to Latin Jazz, a fair balance considering the inherent diversity in a major jazz festival. Unfortunately Chicago only dedicates a meager 6% of their festival to Latin Jazz.

The festival extends over more than a single weekend though, opening the possibilities of further Latin Jazz support. The Jazz Institute of Chicago holds festival concerts all year, including a mini-festival dedicated exclusively to Latin Jazz. In 2009, the event featured the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, John Rodriguez and Latin Inspiration, and Paulinho Garcia. The single event delivered some outstanding music, yet it also shined a focused spotlight upon Latin Jazz. With this event, The Jazz Institute of Chicago made a singular statement that Latin Jazz was an important piece of their musical landscape, and they jumped into a major support role. This focus upon Latin Jazz bumps the city’s score a bit in this category.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 6

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Inclusion of both local and international Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
Chicago boldly supports their local scene throughout the festival, featuring a long list of top-notch local performers. Most of these performers emphasize traditional jazz in their repertoire, reflecting the major artistic culture in the city. The Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble strongly represents the city’s local Latin Jazz scene, bringing the conceptions of their leaders pianist Darwin Noguera and trumpet player Victor Garcia into the forefront. Being a large ensemble, the band also hosts a number of musicians from all aspects of the city’s jazz scene, expressing their clave sensibilities in full force. The other two groups from the Latin Jazz festival were also local acts, reinforcing the Jazz Institute’s dedication to the local scene.

The sole Latin Jazz act originating outside Chicago would be pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who will perform on Friday night, September 4. Granted, much of the traditional jazz from the festival originates in Chicago and very few outside groups enter the festival. In many ways, the festival stands as a celebration of Chicago’s jazz community. At the same time, the inclusion of musicians from other regions brings excitement into the crowd and allows for vital artistic exchange. Chicago could integrate more international artists into their line-up, and they loose points in this category.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 7

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Inclusion of both established and emerging Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
Although the festival only choose to include a couple of Latin Jazz artists over the weekend, they did provide a good balance of experience and youth. Rubalcaba certainly stands as the tested veteran at this point in his career, displaying a refined, unique, and influential artistic personality. He brings a ton of history into every performance – from the influence of his band leader father to his cutting edge fusion in Cuba and explorations with modern American jazz artists, Rubalcaba has been around the block. The Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble represents a new generation of musicians making a definitive statement in the music. They integrate new ideas harmonically, explore different rhythmic traditions, and build upon the big band tradition. The balance between Rubalcaba and Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble clearly represents both sides of the equation; still, it would be nice to get a little more weight on either side.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 7

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Inclusion of a variety of Latin Jazz approaches into the festival line-up
This is a tough category to gauge, due to the small number of acts at the festival, but the artists involved provide some diversity. The Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble’s repertoire includes traditional Cuban rhythms and fiery dance numbers that most people might expect. At the same time, the group’s leaders, Darwin Noguera and Victor Garcia regularly explore other regions, including Peru, Nicaragua, and more; most likely, the group’s direction will reflect this. Rubalcaba always paints a wide swatch of influences in his work, including traditional rhythms, modern jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary genres. He may explore any one of these directions at the festival, but there’s a guaranteed amount of diversity. The separate Latin Jazz festival included Brazilian rhythms and dance approaches, giving Chicago more weight here. Still, the modern Latin Jazz world contains an overwhelming amount of variety, and there’s just not enough here.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 6

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Scheduling of Latin Jazz acts during the festival to ensure This category is a bit of a mixed bag for the Chicago festival, illuminating both positive and negative points. On one hand, Chicago prominently features Latin Jazz artists by placing them in the prime time slots on both Friday and Saturday. Gonzalo Rubalcaba closes the Petrillo Stage on Friday night, headlining the event from 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble headlines the afternoon portion of the event, playing at the Jazz on Jackson stage from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The high profile attention helps spread the word about Latin Jazz and certainly earns Chicago some points. At the same time, there are large chunks of all three days where a Latin Jazz fan can wander throughout the festival and not hear one bit of clave. Granted, the festival simply needs more Latin Jazz acts in order to fill this need – but that’s really the point. This fact lowers Chicago’s score a bit in this category.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 7

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Special event programming for Latin Jazz acts
Special event programming can take many shapes from guest artists to the commission of original pieces; Chicago takes a bit of a creative approach here. Their support of the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble deserves recognition here – hiring a big band requires a major financial investment. The existence of large Latin Jazz ensembles has become a bit of a rarity, and their appearance at a festival has been even more of a special event. The fact that Chicago integrates a large Latin Jazz ensemble into their festival qualifies as special programming. In addition, the Jazz Institute regularly organizes a mini-festival exclusively dedicated to Latin Jazz. In every way, this directed focus upon Latin Jazz screams special event programming. We’ll still leave room for improvement – wouldn’t it be amazing to hear someone like Paquito D’Rivera as a guest artist with the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble – but Chicago scores high here.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 8

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A Latin Jazz educational component
The Jazz Institute of Chicago looks beyond the financial benefits of a jazz festival and looks at the long term benefits of education in their community. The Institute runs an outstanding educational program that actively involves young people in the art of jazz performance. While most of the program focuses upon traditional jazz, they consciously expose young people to Latin rhythms as part of their curriculum and build an awareness of the style. The Institute wisely fuels the future Chicago jazz scene with musicians and audience members that hold an active appreciation for Latin Jazz. At the same time, the Institute organized a free public screening of Calle 54 in order to educate their population about Latin Jazz and build some excitement around the Latin Jazz portion of the festival. Once again, Chicago sees the bigger picture and focuses upon audience development – as a result, Chicago score high again.

Chicago’s Grade In This Category = 9

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Our categories total 100 points, giving us a traditional A-B-C-D-F breakdown. Based on our above tallies, the Latin Jazz Report Card for the 31st Annual Chicago Jazz Festival looks like this:

Freebie points for holding a jazz festival at all
10 – Freebie points for simply including Latin Jazz in the festival line-up
10 – Flexible points that can be molded to festival special circumstances
6 – Percentage of Latin Jazz artists in the festival line-up
7 – Inclusion of both local and international Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
7 – Inclusion of both established and emerging Latin Jazz artists into the festival line-up
6 – Inclusion of a variety of Latin Jazz approaches into the festival line-up
7 – Scheduling of Latin Jazz acts during the festival to ensure maximum visibility
8 – Special event programming for Latin Jazz acts
9 – A Latin Jazz educational component

TOTAL: 80
GRADE: B-

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While they still have significant room for improvement, the Chicago Jazz Festival has made steps in the right direction. They’ve got their eye on the bigger picture, trying to create events that benefit their community rather than sell tickets. Their inclusion of educational activities helps build audience, ensuring a 50th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival. Hopefully next year we’ll see more Latin Jazz artists on their roster, but until then, let’s hope they maintain their smart focus.

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Check Out These Related Posts:
Supporting A Growing Latin Jazz Scene: The Jazz Institute Of Chicago
Weekly Latin Jazz Video Fix: Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble
Latin Jazz At The San Jose Jazz Festival: The Festival Within A Festival
Latin Jazz Report Card: George Wein’s Carefusion Jazz Festival 55

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