In the frenzy of the new academic year, fans of avant-garde jazz had a reason to rejoice Saturday when WNUR-FM (89.3) presented its second annual Chicago Sounds Jazz Festival at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.
The festival, sponsored by LuLu’s Dim Sum and the Illinois Arts Council, featured jazz groups Spaceways Incorporated, The Fred Anderson Trio, Josh Berman Group and the Keefe Jackson Project Project.
The event was held to expose more people to the specific style of jazz music played on WNUR, said Pat Sisson, Medill senior and head of jazz programming at WNUR.
“The main goal is to put on a good concert and get a lot of talented groups,” said Sisson, a Daily staff member. “Second, we try to expose people to new music and to promote it.”
The groups also were enthusiastic about having the opportunity to play music for fresh faces at Northwestern.
“I think it is crucial to play to people who are open-minded,” said Ken Vandermark, reedsman and leader of Spaceways Incorporated. “As far as I am concerned, this is the kind of people I want to play to.”
Despite the group’s vigor for playing in the festival, the 240 attendees expressed mixed reactions.
“I really enjoyed the Fred Anderson Trio,” said Jack Russo, McCormick sophomore. “It was really free.”
Other audience members enjoyed the more visceral aspects of the music.
“I could use some more jarring,” said David Wallin, 46, of Chicago. “I really liked the discord and explorations of sounds and textures.”
But some of the attendees left the festival early because they were expecting to hear traditional jazz — not avant-garde.
“To me, jazz is a combo of harmony and rhythm,” said Larry Todryk, 56, a resident of Grayslake. “I’ve been listening to jazz all my life and this is the first time I walked out (of a show).”
But, according to Weinberg senior T.J. Conway, WNUR’s disc jockey, the groups reflected the focus of the station’s jazz programming.
“All these (groups) are free jazz, and that is our focus on WNUR. … I think that the bands that we picked are representative of what we play on the radio station,” he said.
Despite mixed reactions, Sisson said he felt the festival was an overall success.
“We definitely had more people than we had last year and we had a lot of students in the audience, which I thought was good. … I think people liked the whole concert in general,” he said.
As the year progresses, Sisson said he hopes WNUR will continue to produce concerts such as Saturday’s event.
“At the moment we don’t have anything set in stone, but it would be really great to do it again,” he said. “We rely on funding from the Illinois Arts Council, so we have to hear from them.
Still, Sisson is confident.
“I think we will attempt to put on another show,” he said. “We would like to make this a yearly festival.”
