NINETY-FIFTH SEASON
Friday, May 1, 2026, at 8:00
MIKE REED’S CHICAGO INSPIRATIONS
The City Was Yellow: Chicago Jazz & Improvised Music 1980–2010
Students from the Jazz Institute of Chicago Jazz Links Program
Johannes Ancheta, alto saxophone
Anthony Olauge, tenor saxophone
Matthew Hufford, trumpet
Abby Hacim, trombone
Daniel Johnson, piano
Zadie Ma, bass
Alexios Malamis, drums
Geof Bradfield, saxophone and musical director
Ari Brown Big V
Tomeka Reid Woodlawn
Geof Bradfield Nairobi Transit
Jeff Parker Days Fly By (with Ruby)
Ryan Cohan Steppin’ Up
INTERMISSION
The Magic Box: Music Inspired by Chicago Bassist Fred Hopkins
Mike Reed, drums
Nicole Mitchell, flute
Tomeka Reid, cello
Greg Ward, alto saxophone
Joshua Abrams, bass
Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone
Henry Threadgill Straddle (World premiere, Symphony Center Presents Jazz commission)
Following Threadgill’s Straddle, the second half of this evening’s program will be announced from the stage.
Tonight’s program was curated by Mike Reed, Owner and Director, Chicago’s Constellation and Hungry Brain.
Funding for educational programs during the 2025–26 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
Chicago Jazz, DownBeat magazine, and WDCB 90.9FM Jazz are Media Partners for this event.
The City Was Yellow: Chicago Jazz & Improvised Music 1980–2010
The concert opens with a selection from Mike Reed’s anthology of jazz and improvised music compositions made in Chicago from 1980 to 2010. “It is a reflection of the music I experienced first-hand,” writes Reed, “stumbling in and out of smoky clubs to a soundtrack for a city that was yellow, illuminated by the hue of high-pressure sodium streetlamps.”
Mike Reed Drums
Born in Bielefeld, Germany, Mike Reed is a musician, composer, bandleader, and arts presenter based in Chicago. Over the last two decades, he has emerged as a dominant force within Chicago’s diverse artistic community, both through the music he makes and the live events he produces.
In addition to leading or coleading several working bands, all rooted deeply in jazz and improvised music, he’s founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, the current programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival, and the owner-director of the acclaimed performing-arts venue Constellation.
He is a devoted cultural advocate committed to providing platforms for artistic expression unhindered by commercial pressures. In 2016, he also became the owner of the Hungry Brain, a cozy neighborhood tavern that’s been a fulcrum for live creative music and socially driven public programs.
The Magic Box: Music Inspired by Chicago Bassist Fred Hopkins
The second half of the program explores the legacy of Chicago bassist and Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) member Fred Hopkins. His influence on avant-garde jazz can be heard in the new works, including a commission by Henry Threadgill, performed by a powerhouse ensemble of fellow Chicago improvisers.
Over the last few years, Reed has played in Artifacts, a collective trio with flutist Nicole Mitchell and cellist Tomeka Reid devoted to interpreting music by members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)—a body of work rarely interpreted by musicians other than its composers. He also maintains ongoing collaborative relationships with first-wave AACM figures like the legendary reedist Roscoe Mitchell and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Reed is a member of Chicago’s AACM, where he served as vice chairperson in 2009–11.
Nicole Mitchell Flute
Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning flutist, composer, bandleader, and educator. With a distinct improvisational language, she has been repeatedly named Top Flutist of the Year in DownBeat’s Critics Poll and by the Jazz Journalists Association. She is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, and
she composes music for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size, while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. The former first woman president of Chicago’s AACM, Mitchell celebrates endless possibilities by creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar with the unknown. Mitchell is a professor of music at the University of Virginia.
Tomeka Reid Cello
Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community. Her distinctive melodic sensibility, always rooted in a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles. She is a Foundation of the Arts (2019) and 3Arts awardee (2016). In 2022, she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Reid received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2017. From 2019 to 2021, Reid held the Darius Milhaud Chair in Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California. Reid is the founder of the Chicago Jazz String Summit, founded in 2013.
Greg Ward Alto Saxophone
Considered one of the most versatile saxophonists of his generation, the bandleader, composer, and arranger Greg Ward has performed
and recorded with a varied group of artists, such as Prefuse 73, Lupe Fiasco, Tortoise, William Parker, Makaya McCraven, Linda Oh, and Mike Reed. As a composer, he has received commissions from the Jazz Gallery in NYC, Chicago Jazz Institute, City of Chicago’s Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz Series, and the Peoria Ballet Company. Ward maintains an active international touring schedule with various ensembles. Greg Ward is associate professor of music in jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Joshua Abrams Bass
Joshua Abrams is a composer, bassist, and improviser. His early formative musical experiences included performing with Earle Brown and busking the streets of Philadelphia as an original member of The Roots. For thirty years Abrams has been a key figure in Chicago’s music community and an international touring musician across genres. He founded and composes for the band Natural Information Society which is considered a touchstone for contemporary nonidiomatic creative music. Abrams has scored eleven feature films including the Oscar nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail. Abrams was a 2018 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists recipient.
Jason Adasiewicz Vibraphone
Jason Adasiewicz has been one of the most in-demand players on contemporary improvised music stages with his group Sun Rooms with Mike Reed and Nate McBride, his quintet Rolldown, the ensemble Living By Lanterns (co-led Mike Reed), and in duets and quartets with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. On the album Roscoe Village, Adasiewicz has transcribed and arranged a selection of Roscoe Mitchell’s pieces, performing them all on solo vibraphone. The list of other Chicago projects of which Adasiewicz has been an integral member is extensive, including ones with Nicole Mitchell, Joshua Abrams, Mike Reed, Hamid Drake, James Falzone, and Ken Vandermark.
Geof Bradfield
Saxophone and Musical
Director of The Jazz Institute of Chicago Jazz Links Program
Born in Houston and based in Chicago, Geof Bradfield has performed throughout North America, Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa, and the Middle
East. His work is featured on more than fifty recordings, including seven albums as a leader, that have garnered critical accolades. He has received grants and awards from Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DCASE, Illinois Arts Council, and the Mellon Foundation. The DownBeat Critics Poll has named him a Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist and Arranger multiple times. A committed educator, Bradfield is professor of jazz studies at Northern Illinois University.
Jazz Institute of Chicago
Jazz Links Program
Since the fall of 2016, the Symphony Center Presents Jazz series has formally collaborated with JIC’s Jazz Links program by offering Student Council members the opportunity to attend nearly all jazz concerts presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, as well as preconcert lectures and the artists’ soundcheck when possible. In addition, Symphony Center Presents has arranged preconcert question and answer sessions with some of the visiting jazz musicians, including Branford Marsalis, Jason Moran, Nicholas Payton, Jack DeJohnette, Joshua Redman, members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and many more.
Funding for educational programs during the 2025–26 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation.
PHOTOS BY OWEN REED, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, TONY SMITH, MIKEL AVERY, CHARLIE GROSS, COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS