Praiseworthy: An Intelligent and Prompt Negro
Jan
20
7:00 PM19:00

Praiseworthy: An Intelligent and Prompt Negro

“Praiseworthy: An Intelligent and Prompt Negro - A Railroad Disaster Averted." A story from artist Samuel Lewis II about his great-great grandfather, Phil McBride.

Told using a crankie-style illustration scroll, and accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Hunter Diamond, this piece has been performed in Chicago at the Smart Museum, for the Nasty Brutish and Short series, and at the 2024 National Puppet Slam in Atlanta.

Read about Sam Lewis and his creative work in the Chicago Reader.

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Irene Hsiao: Dragonatomy
Jan
25
2:00 PM14:00

Irene Hsiao: Dragonatomy

  • Heritage Museum of Asian Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Irene Hsiao creates performances in conversation with visual art in museums, galleries, and public spaces, a practice that includes site-specific interaction with visual artworks and experimental engagement with artists, institutions, and the public. She is the resident artist 2024 at the Heritage Museum.

We search for dragons in art, in movement, in music, and in ourselves. Reflect upon the Year of the Dragon in this exploratory performance by Irene Hsiao in collaboration with Paige Brown, Hunter Diamond, Menghua Guan, Penny Li, Amanda Maraist, Scott Rubin, Darling “Shear” Squire, and Peter Wong at the Heritage Museum of Asian Art.

If the Sky Could Dream 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 more information about the full-bio of performers, please visit: https://irenechsiao.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/if-the-sky-could-dream-dragonatomy/

If The Sky Could Dream: Dragonatomy is generously funded by the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation as part of the Dragon Within: Loong and Global Symbols event series. If the Sky Could Dream is supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Irene Hsiao is the 2024 Resident Artist at Heritage Museum of Asian Art.

Tickets and More Information

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Black Diamond at the Green Mill
Jan
26
4:00 PM16:00

Black Diamond at the Green Mill

We’ll present our newest material as part of the ongoing Chicago Jazz Composer’s Collective series. This program has been curated by Chicago vibraphonist/composer Kathy Kelly since the early 2000’s and is a cornerstone of new music in the community. This will be our last performance before we head into the studio to track our next quartet recording.

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Ana Everling at the Epiphany Center for the Arts
Mar
8
8:00 PM20:00

Ana Everling at the Epiphany Center for the Arts

Ana Everling is an artist who has spent her life focusing on the practice and performance of vocal music. Her passion lies within the heart of Romanian Folklore from Moldova. With her practice, she has developed a unique style that reflects a deep love for tradition and yet propels these folkloric sounds into a new dimension.

The new Ana Everling Quartet project sounds like folklore but it is all original compositions combined with modern arrangements and improvised sound, delivering complex performances that address universal themes.

Tickets and More Information

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Flesh of Fruit (album release)
Mar
21
8:00 PM20:00

Flesh of Fruit (album release)

Flesh of Fruit is the debut collaboration from Chicago sound artists Hunter Diamond and Allen Moore. They use free improvisation and experimental electronics to engage reflective nostalgia, creating a sound collage equally at home in a free jazz club, art gallery, or underground noise show.

Allen Moore is a Black interdisciplinary visual artist, experimental turntablist, sound artist, educator and youth mentor from Robbins, Illinois, near Chicago’s South Side. His work converses with the signifiers of African-American culture. At the heart of his practice is graphite, which he often uses in his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Working with this material in his visual work led him to hand casting records with graphite, creating warped mirrors of old soul records. These graphite records serve as the foundation for sound art pieces and live performances with Moore using up to four turntables to create collages of hypnotic textures and rhythms that resonate like hymns of fractured nostalgia

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Radio Outernational at the Hideout
Jan
17
8:30 PM20:30

Radio Outernational at the Hideout

Tomorrow Never Knows Festival presents:

Radio Outernational combines the rhythm section from the Eternals with a fresh saxophone and flute frontline — old acquaintances joining forces to conjure something new. The music is multi-dimensional, guided by a collective ensemble approach, exploring hypnotic psychedelic grooves, snaking ethio-funk and venturing beyond. Transcending genre and teeming with infectious energy, the quintet is carefully designed yet hard to define.

Hunter Diamond – saxophone/flute
Wayne Montana – bass
Kenthaney Redmond – flute
Aaron Shapiro – guitar
Areif Sless-Kitain – drums

Opening set from Chicago/Milwaukee rippers Yr Knives

More information here

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Ana Everling at Skokie Public Library
Jan
12
3:00 PM15:00

Ana Everling at Skokie Public Library

A creative vocalist from Republic of Moldova, Ana Everling performs music described as both innovative and respectful of traditional Eastern European styles.

Ana has been praised for her ability to bring new life and energy to these timeless musical traditions while creating something entirely new and unique. Her quartet sounds like folklore, yet the musicians are performing all original compositions, with modern arrangements and improvised sound, delivering complex performances that address universal themes.

Free tickets will be given out starting at 2:30 pm to persons who are present.

More information here

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Orchestra Resavoir at Thalia Hall
Dec
19
8:00 PM20:00

Orchestra Resavoir at Thalia Hall

The most expansive iteration to date

Rooted in the collaborative spirit of the early 2010s indie hip-hop scene, Will Miller cut loose from his training at Oberlin jazz conservatory, taking a compositional assignment to write a tune about a reservoir as his cue to explore a beats and RnB-inspired sound that could function as a literal reservoir of music to draw from. Running his trumpet through MIDI keyboards, experimenting with samplers, drum machines and synths, he began to build a sound that could seamlessly collaborate with MCs, vocalists and instrumentalists.

“With Resavoir, it’s been more about unlearning those stigmas and traumas of going through the very rigid system of learning music and coming back to making something that is going to make me feel good and reflects how I'm feeling in the moment,” Miller explains.

A longtime member of indie band Whitney, and having subsequently worked with the likes of Mac Miller, ASAP Rocky, Chance The Rapper, Lil Wayne and SZA - for whom he produced “Blind” from her 2022 album SOS which spent 10 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 100 chart - the Resavoir project allowed Miller to take these experiences into his own work - creating a sound that is deft yet deep, compositionally complex, yet finely tuned to the timbres of emotion that color life’s quieter moments.

Tickets and More information

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Ana Everling at The Green Mill
Dec
15
4:00 PM16:00

Ana Everling at The Green Mill

Presented by the Chicago Jazz Composer’s Collective series:

Ana Everling is an artist who has spent her life focusing on the practice and performance of vocal music. Her passion lies within the heart of Romanian Folklore from Moldova. With her practice, she has developed a unique style that reflects a deep love for tradition and yet propels these folkloric sounds into a new dimension. Are we listening to jazz? Are we walking through a misty Romanian forest? 

Her storytelling and vision is one of a woman’s journey of studying music in art schools in Moldova to busking on the streets of Chicago and now sells out venues throughout the United States. One of her missions as a performer is to promote a free form genre called “Doina”. This effort led her to be honored by the president of Moldova as she was given the title Artist Emerit for prodigious activity in culture, high professional mastery and substantial contribution to preserving and developing the spiritual values of Moldovan culture and promoting Moldova's image abroad.  

The new Ana Everling Quartet project sounds like folklore but it is all original compositions combined with modern arrangements and improvised sound, delivering complex performances that address universal themes.

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Diamond/Reed EU tour
Dec
2
to Dec 9

Diamond/Reed EU tour

Chicago drummer Mike Reed and I will be playing a string of European dates honoring the duo record we made together in 2021 and also performing with a handful of special guests.

12.2 - Bimhaus, Amsterdam NL

12.3 - Zaal 100 (with special guests tba) , Amsterdam NL

12.4 - POM, Eindhoven NL

12.6 - Soviso (with special guests tba), Berlin GER

12.7 - Théâtre Municipal Berthelot with Théo Girard, Paris FR

12.8 - Dropa House, Antwerp BEL

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Black Diamond France tour
Nov
23
to Nov 28

Black Diamond France tour

Black Diamond’s first ever EU dates! For the first part of the trip, Artie and Hunter will play a string of duo concerts in the south of France:

November 23rd - La Bouche à Oreille (with special guest Aymeric Avice), Simorre

November 24th - afternoon masterclass at École de Musique Rue Bourbon, Lauzerte

November 24th - evening concert at Le-Puits-de-Jour cafe, Lauzerte

November 25th - Carlanne, Penne d’Agenais

November 26th - La Confiserie*, Rabastens

November 27th - Château*, Betchat

November 28th - Gloria*, Toulouse

*supporting/joining AM Higgins

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The Bridge with special guests
Nov
19
9:00 PM21:00

The Bridge with special guests

The Bridge is a transatlantic cultural exchange program that brings together improvising musicians from France and Chicago for tours and recordings.

I’ll be joining them for a special night of mixed groupings at The Whistler in Logan Square.

The core band:

Greg Ward — alto saxophone
Nicolas Peoc’h — alto saxophone
Hélène Labarrière — double bass
Isaiah Spencer — drums

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Black Diamond at the Hungry Brain
Nov
8
9:00 PM21:00

Black Diamond at the Hungry Brain

Black Diamond thrives on the chemistry and compositions of saxophonists Artie Black and Hunter Diamond. Their new album Furniture Of the Mind Rearranging (WeJazz Records) is an assemblage of new compositions and improvisations that develop the band's established sound and exemplify the way in which this band folds into the Chicago creative music community. The quartet traverses their familiar aesthetic ranges between driving off-kilter groove, plaintive minimalism, and intimate chamber music, with the ever-present spirit of small-group jazz and a hovering influence of Chicago’s improvised music culture. And while this collection represents three previous albums and more than a decade of close kinship and artistic evolution between co-leaders Black and Diamond, neither are too precious about any one element on the album. This is very simply the latest work in what continues to be an expanding body work founded on a guiding principle: cultivation without expectation.

Artie Black - saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute

Matt Ulery - bass

Neil Hemphill - drums

More information and tickets here

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Matt Ulery nonet (night two)
Oct
19
8:00 PM20:00

Matt Ulery nonet (night two)

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. 

Matt Ulery - bass, compositions

Russ Johnson - trumpet

James Davis - trumpet

Chris Shuttleworth - trombone

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, clarinet

Artie Black - saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

Dustin Laurenzi - saxophone

Julius Tucker - piano

Jon Deitemeyer - drums

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Matt Ulery nonet (night one)
Oct
18
8:00 PM20:00

Matt Ulery nonet (night one)

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. 

Matt Ulery - bass, compositions

Russ Johnson - trumpet

James Davis - trumpet

Chris Shuttleworth - trombone

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, clarinet

Artie Black - saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

Dustin Laurenzi - saxophone

Julius Tucker - piano

Jon Deitemeyer - drums

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Matt Ulery nonet (New Buffalo, MI)
Oct
13
7:00 PM19:00

Matt Ulery nonet (New Buffalo, MI)

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. 

Matt Ulery - bass, compositions

Russ Johnson - trumpet

James Davis - trumpet

Chris Shuttleworth - trombone

Hunter Diamond - saxophone, flute, clarinet

Artie Black - saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

Dustin Laurenzi - saxophone

Julius Tucker - piano

Jon Deitemeyer - drums

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Fulcrom Point Presents: Angelo Hart
Oct
8
8:00 PM20:00

Fulcrom Point Presents: Angelo Hart

FULCRUM POINT NEW MUSIC PROJECT PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF THE MUSICAL EXPERIENCE GLOBALLY BY SUPPORTING NEW COMPOSITIONS, CREATING AND PERFORMING TRANSFORMATIVE NEW MUSIC PROGRAMS, AND EDUCATING AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES AND BACKGROUNDS TO IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES OF MUSIC.

Angelo Hart - Piano

Hunter Diamond - winds, electronics

Sarah Clausen - winds, electronics

Marion Mallard - bass

Greg Artry - Drums

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Taraf de Chicago at Constellation
Sep
24
8:00 PM20:00

Taraf de Chicago at Constellation

Two sets of Moldovan/Romanian folk music re-imagined, composed, and arranged by Moldovan vocalist and artist Ana Everling. Performing music from our debut record Pui De Dor.

Ana Everling - voice

Patrick Donley - piano, guitar, banjo

Alex Brescanu - woodwinds

Hunter Diamod - woodwinds, percussion

Kitt Lyles - bass

Stephanie Pielok - violin

Olya Prohotova - violin

order a vinyl copy

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Lucas Gillan's Many Blessings
Sep
17
7:00 PM19:00

Lucas Gillan's Many Blessings

Freedom and order. Lyricism and abstraction. Sensitivity and raucousness. Lucas Gillan’s Many Blessings, a Chicago-based jazz quartet, finds comfort in the space between these opposites. Gillan, the drummer and bandleader, 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

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Taraf de Chicago at the Green Mill
Sep
7
8:00 PM20:00

Taraf de Chicago at the Green Mill

PUI DE DOR ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

Two sets of Moldovan/Romanian folk music re-imagined, composed, and arranged by Moldovan vocalist and artist Ana Everling.

Ana Everling - voice

Patrick Donley - piano, guitar, banjo

Alex Brescanu - woodwinds

Hunter Diamod - woodwinds, percussion

Kitt Lyles - bass

Stephanie Pielok - violin

Olya Prohotova - violin

Pre-order a vinyl copy

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