Jazz After Hours: Mike Reed’s Inner Circle

The library lobby will vibrate with melody and improvisation from Mike Reed’s Inner Circle.  For over a decade Mike Reed has been “a center of gravity for music in Chicago and beyond” (Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune).  Reed grew up in Evanston and now tours the world, leads several ensembles, plays percussion in groups led by jazz legends like Roscoe Mitchell and Wadada Leo Smith, and is a member of Chicago’s AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), the subject of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s major 2015 retrospective The Freedom Principle.  Reed is also one of Chicago’s key music presenters: he runs two venues and has key roles in programming the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Pitchfork Music Festival.

Start your Saturday night out in downtown Evanston with a group that “doesn’t just preserve the Chicago tradition; they’re helping extend it” (Kevin Whitehead, Fresh Air, NPR).  For a preview, check out this video of Reed’s quartet playing in Paris.

*Doors at 6 pm, when the library closes. Music from 6:30-7:30.