i love the chicago jazz festival!

Very excited that the Chicago Jazz Festival starts today for labor day weekend in grant park!  I love riding my bike w/ my dorky picnic backpack down there to just chill, enjoy, respect & love.  I’ve been going for about 20yrs myself… but it’s been around for about 30! 

It all sort of started when jazz icon duke Ellington passed away in ’74… and a bunch of chicago musicians got together to hold a festival to honor him at the old bandshell in grant park… 10,000+ duke & jazz music lovers came that year, and annual memorial concert crowds kept growing… then there was a big memorial thrown for john coltrane in ’78 in the same spot that also was quite successful… and then a year after that the jazz institute of chicago started producing their own jazz fest…. All of which lead to 3 annual jazz gatherings in the same spot all at the end of august!

Well, the mayor’s office of special events knew that if the 3 groups came together to combine all the talent, energy & passion, our city could have one the greatest jazz festivals on earth- and they were right!  The first chicago jazz festival was born w/ 125,000 people there to support, listen, dance, picnic in the grass… and its been growing dramatically ever since… now known as one of the most extensive, respected & celebrated free jazz festivals in the world!  Hope you get a chance to be there too this year…. Thanks to http://www.explorechicago.org for sharing all the great info, pic, love for the best city in the world….