Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration: The State of Jazz 2019 comes to the MAC Nov. 10
Nov. 10 will bring a triple-bill of current Blue Note artists to the McAninch Arts Center as part of the exclusive Chicago-area engagement of "Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration: The State of Jazz 2019."
Beginning at 6 p.m., Kandace Springs, James Francies and the James Carter Organ Trio will perform a set of their own music before coming together for the finale featuring a classic Blue Note tune.
A free MAC Chat will precede the concert at 5 p.m.
Media support for this event is provided by WDCB 90.9 FM, Chicago's jazz station.
Nashville singer and pianist Kandace Springs will release her third Blue Note album "The Women Who Raised Me" in early 2020. After her head-turning 2014 self-titled EP (which caught the attention of Prince who raved "Kandace has a voice that could melt snow"), Springs released her Larry Klein produced debut album, "Soul Eyes" in 2016, followed by her "breathtakingly eclectic" (MOJO) 2018 album "Indigo," produced by Karriem Riggins. The Wall Street Journal declared "the soulful pianist and vocalist is self-assured, distinctive and strikingly contemporary" while Rolling Stone said Springs "recalls an era when the boundaries between jazz, soul and pop were more fluid."
The New York Times has called James Francies "a pianist with liquid dynamism in his touch." The Houston-born, New York City-based pianist and composer released his acclaimed debut album "Flight" on Blue Note in 2018. He has played with jazz headliners including Pat Metheny, Chris Potter, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Stefon Harris, Eric Harland and Terrace Martin, and racked up equally impressive credits in hip-hop and R&B from gigs with Lauryn Hill, José James, Common, and Nas, to studio time with Chance the Rapper and appearances with The Roots on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
Detroit saxophonist James Carter's Blue Note debut, "James Carter Organ Trio: Live From Newport Jazz," comes out Aug. 30, a thrilling live performance of Carter's imaginative soul jazz reinvention of Django Reinhardt. Hailed as "one of the most charismatic and powerful soloists in jazz," by The New York Times, Carter harbors a command of his instruments that is astonishingly complete, though he only employs that technique in the service of canny ideas, evoking early jazz, jump blues, the avant-garde and other lessons residing inside his vast, scholarly knowledge of the music of the African American experience.
"Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration: The State of Jazz 2019" will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. in Glen Ellyn.
Tickets are $55-$65. For an additional $30 per person, attendees may add on VIP Suite Service, a private, preshow cocktail and hors d'oeuvres reception.
For tickets or more information, visit AtTheMAC.org or call (630) 942-4000.