Chicago singer/guitarist Peter Cunningham assembles a local wrecking crew for a night of bar favorites.
Hunter Diamond (solo)
Katinka Kleijn (solo)
Caleb Willitz w/ Eli Wallace and Tommaso Moretti (album release)
This award is being presented to Chicago artist Marvin Tate, with whom I’ll be performing.
Each year Elastic Arts Foundation gives this award to an artist that has not only been an integral part of the Elastic Arts community but of the Chicago and global arts communities as well. Through his multifaceted creative practices, community outreach and education, and dynamic decades-long performance career, Marvin makes for an ideal recipient of this award. He is nothing but 100% himself, and we all benefit from it. I’m honored to be performing alongside him as we’ll present new materials from a forthcoming recording.
This performance will take place during the 2024 Elastic Arts Foundation benefit event. Tickets and more information can be found at elasticarts.org.
Hosted by artist-in-residence Marvin Tate, Soul-Salad is a musical offering of national and local acts, from free-jazz, blues, and classical to merengue, and performance art. Tate’s vision is to cross-pollinate the arts and make his old neighborhood a hotspot for locals and out-of-towners.
My longstanding collaborative quartet is celebrating the release the brand new double-LP “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging” (We Jazz).
My longstanding collaborative quartet is celebrating the release the brand new double-LP “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging” (We Jazz).
My longstanding collaborative quartet is celebrating the release the brand new double-LP “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging” (We Jazz).
A set of original music performed by my current quartet with Olula Negre (cello), Anton Hatwich (bass), and Tommaso Moretti (drums).
Second set is a new project from Sarah Clausen.
Two sets of Moldovan/Romanian folk music re-imagined, composed, and arranged by Moldovan vocalist and artist Ana Everling.
Ana Everling - voice, compositions
Kenny Reichert - electric guitar
Edinho Gerber - 7-string acoustic guitar
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, drums, percussion, field recordings
My long standing collaborative quartet Black Diamond releases it’s fourth recording via We Jazz Records in Helsinki, a double album entitled “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging.”
We’ll celebrate by playing two nights at one of our favorite clubs in the world.
Artie Black - saxophone, bass clarinet, compositions
Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, compositions
Matt Ulery - bass
Neil Hemphill - drums
My long standing collaborative quartet Black Diamond releases it’s fourth recording via We Jazz Records in Helsinki, a double album entitled “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging.”
We’ll celebrate by playing two nights at one of our favorite clubs in the world.
Artie Black - saxophone, bass clarinet, compositions
Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, compositions
Matt Ulery - bass
Neil Hemphill - drums
Radio Outernational combines the rhythm section from The Eternals with a fresh saxophone and flute frontline. Old acquaintances joining forces to conjure something new. Guided by a collective ensemble approach, the music is multidimensional, exploring hypnotic psychedelic grooves, snaking ethio-funk and beyond. It transcends genre and teems with infectious energy.
Magic Carpet is a global groove band led by Chicago saxophonist Fred Jackson Jr.
Hannah Frances is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, poet, and movement artist. Her most recent record Keeper of the Shepherd was voted “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.
As a contributing arranger and soloist, my work can be heard extensively in the live show and on the record.
In a special post-festival trio set, Hannah will be accompanied by myself and Sarah Clausen on a range of woodwinds, electronics, percussion, and field recordings.
Hannah Frances is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, poet, and movement artist. Her most recent record Keeper of the Shepherd was voted “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.
As a contributing arranger and soloist, my work can be heard extensively in the live show and on the record.
A rare occurrence as three of Chicago’s most active creative saxophonists will perform together for what will be an entrancing and free-form improvisation.
Sarah Clausen - saxophone, electronics
Dustin Laurenzi - saxophone, electronics
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, electronics
As part of the annual Jazzin’ at the Shedd series, Herbsaint will present three sets of New Orleans music.
Hunter Diamond - clarinet, drums, voice
Patrick Donley - piano, voice
John Sutton - bass
Hannah Frances is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, poet, and movement artist. Her most recent record Keeper of the Shepherd was voted “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.
As a contributing arranger and soloist, my work can be heard extensively in the live show and on the record.
Avrom Farm Party is a music and food festival in the hills that overlook Green Lake, Wisconsin. It’s a weekend to relax, a parade of great music, and a feast of farm-fresh food. And it’s a celebration of regenerative agriculture. Our purpose is to make nutritious, responsibly grown food available and accessible in daily life.
Opening for Whitney
Hannah Frances is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, poet, and movement artist. Her most recent record Keeper of the Shepherd was voted “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.
As a contributing arranger and soloist, my work can be heard extensively in the live show and on the record.
Opening for Whitney
Hannah Frances is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, poet, and movement artist. Her most recent record Keeper of the Shepherd was voted “Best New Music” by Pitchfork.
As a contributing arranger and soloist, my work can be heard extensively in the live show and on the record.
Performing music from our latest release “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging” (We Jazz Records), brand new un-recorded material, and some classics from the archive.
Two sets of Moldovan/Romanian folk music re-imagined, composed, and arranged by Moldovan vocalist and artist Ana Everling.
Ana Everling - voice, compositions
Kenny Reichert - electric guitar
Edinho Gerber - 7-string acoustic guitar
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, drums, percussion, field recordings
Legendary Chicago acid-jazz band Liquid Soul continues on in honor of Mars Williams, the late founder of the band who passed away in the fall on 2023.
Chicago based bassist/composer and bandleader Matt Ulery has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures, expressionistic emotionalism, Ulery’s music, from small, diverse chamber ensembles to full orchestras, is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk– specifically American, South American, Balkan, and other European folk styles. He has been performing for 25 years on upright, electric, and brass basses.
For over two decades, Ulery has been the leader of his own groups and frequent collaborator. Ulery has produced and released 15 critically acclaimed albums of all original music under his name including with his latest, 11-piece mixed chamber jazz ensemble, Mannerist, from May 2023. In 2014, Matt Ulery’s Loom performed on the NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and was featured in Vanity Fair Magazine in a “rising jazz stars” feature article.
Chicago based bassist/composer and bandleader Matt Ulery has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures, expressionistic emotionalism, Ulery’s music, from small, diverse chamber ensembles to full orchestras, is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk– specifically American, South American, Balkan, and other European folk styles. He has been performing for 25 years on upright, electric, and brass basses.
For over two decades, Ulery has been the leader of his own groups and frequent collaborator. Ulery has produced and released 15 critically acclaimed albums of all original music under his name including with his latest, 11-piece mixed chamber jazz ensemble, Mannerist, from May 2023. In 2014, Matt Ulery’s Loom performed on the NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and was featured in Vanity Fair Magazine in a “rising jazz stars” feature article.
Chicago drummer/composer Lucas Gillan composes music that hooks listeners with insistent grooves and memorable melodies even while subverting expectations with outré harmonies and freewheeling improvisations.
Quentin Coaxum - trumpet
Hunter Diamond - saxophone
Dan Thatcher - bass
Lucas Gillan - drums, compositions
An evening of mixed groupings of improvisors from France and Chicago.
The Bridge has been building itself since 2013, inspired by a simple observation: if it is now well known that jazz and improvised music, in France and in Europe, have found their flight, their specificity and their independence, some North American stages, particularly in Chicago and the Midwest, continue to develop at their own rhythm(s). The autonomy acquired and the originality developed by both sides should not prevent new forms of cooperation. On the contrary, we believe that they should even encourage them.
To durably bring together French and North American musicians (our network gathers more than 140 musicians from both countries, the list of whom is given in the chronology, and who have been divided into quartets and quintets, themselves divided into two cycles); to give them space, time and the opportunity to get to know each other, in their similarities and differences, to develop their exchanges and creative projects, in reciprocity and complementarity: such is the objective of The Bridge.
This duo has released two albums on Curio Records: Bywater (recorded in 2019 in the bywater neighborhood in New Orleans) and Earnest Earth (recorded in 2022 in the Garfield Park neighborhood in Chicago).
Our irregular meetings have consistently led to intensely vulnerable and malleable performances.
Opening set: Cyrus Nabipoor & Emily Mikesell trumpet + fx duo.
This duo has released two albums on Curio Records: Bywater (recorded in 2019 in the bywater neighborhood in New Orleans) and Earnest Earth (recorded in 2022 in the Garfield Park neighborhood in Chicago).
Our irregular meetings have consistently led to intensely vulnerable and malleable performances.
Opening set from Byron Asher (solo).
Three sets of mixed duos and trios between Helen Gillet, James Evans, Justin Peake, Chris Alford, and myself.
I’m reassembling my New Orleans quartet with Hellen Gillet (cello), James Singleton (bass), and Justin Peake (drums) for a night of improvisation and original compositions
I’m reassembling my New Orleans quartet with Hellen Gillet (cello), James Singleton (bass), and Justin Peake (drums) for a night of improvisation and original compositions
Join us for the final Blues event of Logan Experimental Blues Series. Apart of Blues@Logan our Experimental Blues performances are designed to mimic the feeling of sitting on a porch listening to the Blues but in the intimate setting of our Performance Penthouse.
The vibe feels like you’re attended a Tiny-Desk concert and we saved the best one for last by bringing together Blues songstress from Texas, Diunna Greenleaf and our own local vocalist and poet, Marvin Tate.
Diunna will bring us on a musical tour of the Blues and highlight its connection to Negro Spirituals while Marvin will take us on his journey/interpretation and affiliation with the Blues. Laced with personal-narratives, and off-kilter-observations. He will be joined by long-time collaborator and bandmate; multi instrumentalist/experimentalist, Hunter Diamond.
Diunna Greenleaf, the leader of Blue Mercy, is a native Texan (Houston) who has a background steeped in gospel music. Influenced by the likes of Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Rosetta Thorpe, Sam Cooke, Charles Brown and her own parents Ben & Mary Ella Greenleaf (Gospel). She has developed “Diunna’s style of Blues” in the same tradition as so many other great Texas blues men and women. She combines intricate patches of jazz, gospel and heartfelt soul to create a kind blues that takes one on an emotional roller coaster ride. Diunna and her band Blue Mercy have performed throughout the United States and Internationally.
EXPO CHICAGO #expoartweek program April 12, 5-7PM: If The Sky Could Dream: Art, Climate, Community, and Social Change with NRDC’s Associate Director of Arts and Cultural Partnerships Elizabeth Corr.
If the Sky Could Dream is a new interactive installation, performance, and workshop series from Chicago artist Irene Hsiao. It combines drawing, painting, dance, found materials and found spaces at the museum to reveal and celebrate the dragons among us—structural, ancestral, architectural, internal, and environmental. Because the dragon is a water deity in Chinese culture, this work also features projections of the waters of Chicago: Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and the lakes, ponds, and lagoons of Chicago Parks.
If The Sky Could Dream is funded, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
Prolific bassist/composer, Matt Ulery, leads a nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble featuring the robust instrumental voices of Chicago based musicians, Julius Tucker (piano), Jon Deitemeyer (drums), James Davis and Russ Johnson (trumpets), Dustin Laurenzi, Hunter Diamond, and Artie Black (reeds), and Chris Shuttleworth (trombone/euphonium).
Commemorating Jazz Appreciation Month, Ulery’s Nonet celebrates both the orchestral dance heritage as well as the more impressionistic styles that have been advancing with the art form. The magic number nine allows for the expression of rich harmonies and disparate tonal colors but with the intimate feel of a small ensemble. The nonet will play two sets including brand new music and fresh arrangements from Ulery’s 2023 album, Mannerist.
As part of the 2x4 series curated by Chicago drummer Julian Kirshner, my ongoing duo project with Marvin Tate will present our latest schemes and textures. There will be several other established Chicago duos also performing.
Freedom From and Freedom To is an exploration and celebration of artistic circumstance. Movement and sound improvisors from all around Chicago gather in front of a live audience, where they are grouped by chance. Each group performs an improvised set. We fuse diverse artistic backgrounds and practices to create unique and fleeting worlds.
The events are improvisational performance environments which interrogate movement and sound. We use an ensemble of movers and sound-makers that are remarkably diverse in their crafts and backgrounds. Freedom From and Freedom To integrates relationality by engaging audience participation. The audience is invited to randomly draw a combination of artists who will perform together. Some of the participants have never engaged with each other before, which creates a challenging and often rewarding opportunity for world-making.
Hunter Diamond - saxophone, electronics, compositions
Olula Negra - cello
Anton Hatwich - bass
Tommaso Moretti - drums
opening set from Allen Moore (solo) - turntables, kaossilator and microcosm pedal.
Curated by Chicago composer/vibraphonist Kathy Kelly for over 20 years, the Chicago Jazz Composer’s Collective has provided a valuable outlet for local composers to present new work.
With the upcoming release of our latest album “Furniture of the Mind Rearranging” (We Jazz), we’ll present new material on and off the record.
Artie Black - saxophone, bass clarinet, compositions
Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, compositions
Matt Ulery - bass
Neil Hemphill - drums
If the Sky Could Dream is a new interactive installation, performance, and workshop series from Chicago artist Irene Hsiao. It combines drawing, painting, dance, found materials and found spaces at the museum to reveal and celebrate the dragons among us—structural, ancestral, architectural, internal, and environmental. Because the dragon is a water deity in Chinese culture, this work also features projections of the waters of Chicago: Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and the lakes, ponds, and lagoons of Chicago Parks.
For this event I’ll be a guest artist, performing with Irene from 6:00-6:30pm and again from 7:30-8:00pm.
Radio Outernational combines the rhythm section from the Eternals with a fresh saxophone and flute frontline — old acquaintances joining forces to conjure something new. Guided by a collective ensemble approach, the music is multi-dimensional, exploring hypnotic psychedelic grooves, snaking ethio-funk and beyond. It transcends genre and teems with infectious energy. Carefully designed yet hard to define.
Opening for Laetitia Sadier
Vermont-based singer-songwrited Hannah Frances’ new album “Keeper of the Shepherd” (Ruination Records) features a dynamic cast of young Chicago creative musicians. We’ll celebrate the release at Constellation, one of Chicago’s premier listening rooms.
Pre-order and listen to the advances singles here
Presnted as part of the annual Chopin in the City festival, curated by Grazyna Auguscik, Ana’s trio will present a set of music ranging from traditional Romanian/Moldovan folk songs to under-known Brazilian guitar music.
Hunter Diamond and Mike Reed's intergenerational duo performs spirited improvisations that extends the tradition of Chicago improvised music and the historic saxophone-drum collaborations between John Coltrane & Rashied Ali, Archie Shepp & Max Roach, Dewey Redman & Ed Blackwell, Charles Lloyd & Billy Higgins, Joe McPhee & Hamid Drake, and many others.
Writing about the duo in the Chicago Reader ahead of their 2022 performance at Chicago's Hyde Park Jazz Festival, jazz journalist Bill Meyer wrote that "...the drums-and-reeds duo of Mike Reed and Hunter Diamond exemplify the city’s robust avant-garde community.”
Their debut record "Nilia" was released on Diamond's label Curio Records in 2021.
Performance will take place in the Claudia Cassidy Theater.
Continuing my ongoing work in one-man orchestral accompaniment and collaboration with Marvin Tate
Marvin Tate - voice
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, drums, percussion, electronics
Second set from Michael Dalmani
I’m reassembling my New Orleans quartet with Hellen Gillet (cello), James Singleton (bass), and Justin Peake (drums) for a night of improvisation and original compositions
“A Bronzville-flavored Fat Tuesday experience” curated by local artists Sam Thousand and Yumdiva
I’ll peforming a short solo set of drums, clarinet and field recordings amongst the busy New Orleanian atmosphere of the event.
Working with the Paris-based organization Artists in Exile, I will give a free workshop and facilitate collaborative music making with artists from across multiple continents who have been displaced from their home countries and are now living in Paris seeking steady opportunities create new work.
At the invitation of Alexandre Pierrepont (lecturer at university of paris 8 vincennes-saint-denis) and Jean-Charles Richard (coordinator of the specialized jazz and improvised music cycle at the Paris Conservatory), I will give a performance and conduct a masterclass concerning improvised music and creative composition.
The Bridge is an international organization that pairs French and Chicago improvising musicians for first-time collaborative tours and recordings.
Personnel and tour schedule below. Visit their website for more information.
Mike Reed has assembled a new crew of old friends and collaborators to present his latest book of compositions.
Josh Berman - cornet
Fred Jackson, Jr. - alto and soprano saxophones
Hunter Diamond - clarinet and tenor saxophone
Matt Davis - trombone
Jason Roebke - bass
Mike Reed - drums
Moldovan vocalist Ana Everling brings a Romanian folkloric sound, with doinas, improvised music, carols from the shores of the Black Sea and original pieces as well.
Edinho Gerber - 7-string guitar
Kenny Reichert - electric guitar.
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, drums, field recordings
Artifacts is a collective trio consisting of Nicole Mitchell on flute and electronics, Tomeka Reid on cello and Mike Reed on drums. The group was initially formed to celebrate the legacy of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians during its 50th anniversary, interpreting compositions by some of its members, including: Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve McCall, Amina Claudine Meyers, Fred Anderson, Ed Wilkerson Jr., Leroy Jenkins, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, and Mike Reed.
I’ll be joining the trio for portions of the second and third sets.
Radio Outernational is a new Chicago outfit made up of members of The Eternals with a fresh frontline of flutes and saxophone featuring Hunter Diamond and Kenthaney Redmond. Their music is multi-dimensional, exploring hypnotic psychedelic grooves, snaking ethio-funk and beyond.
Damon Locks (solo) opens.
Chicago stalwart poet and visual/spoken word artist is breaking out of his tried and true material that many locals are familar with. With the help of a new backing ensemble, Tate will debut brand new poems and stories.
Marvin Tate - voice
Hunter Diamond - woodwinds, field recordings
Allen Moore - hand-casted records, turntable, electronics
Bill Harris - drums
