Trumpeter Davis’ vision right on schedule

Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich
More than a decade ago, Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis and his longtime business partner, Mark Ingram, embraced a bold idea: Create an orchestra that could merge jazz and classical traditions, an idiom that musicians sometimes call Third Stream.

As Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic prepares to launch its 10th anniversary season this month, the two men and their colleagues appear to have accomplished what looked nearly impossible when they started.

“I’m amazed that we’re still in existence,” says Davis, looking back on a long list of performances. “Every concert featured world premieres. We had a chance to showcase a lot of the best talent that Chicago has to offer.

“And we’re right on schedule in terms of my vision.”

That vision involved not just performing Third Stream repertoire but also training classical musicians to get comfortable with improvised jazz, and jazz musicians to become conversant in symphonic practices. The task is more challenging than it sounds, for jazz and classical players are not always educated in each other’s disciplines, making it difficult for many to finesse jazz-classical orchestral scores by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson and other cross-genre adventurers.

Listen to the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, especially after all these years of work, and you’re hearing an ensemble that sounds equally at home in both realms.

How fitting that its 10th anniversary season will be its most ambitious, with concerts in high-profile venues such as the Auditorium Theatre and Symphony Center, as well as a second trip to Cuba in December. In addition, the organization for the first time has commissioned a new work by someone other than Davis: composer Daniel Schnyder.

In many ways, then, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic has grown dramatically in the past decade. Its annual budget developed from almost nothing to $350,000 a few years ago, $550,000 during the past three years and $750,000 for the coming season. That figure includes its extensive education efforts, which bring Davis and his organization into 11 schools and include a summer jazz academy that recently served 110 kids.
read more: http://hydeparkjazzfestival.org