In April of 1970, Mahalia Jackson, often called the greatest gospel singer, returned to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square (then known as Beauregard Square), she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the event, came upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of second-line revelers through the Festival grounds. George Wein, producer of the Festival, handed Ms. Jackson a microphone, she sang along with the band and joined the parade… and the spirit of Jazz Fest was born.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary, our hope was to be able to put together a festival that could look back on some of the great moments of Chicago jazz and in the festival’s history, but not dwell on that and really look forward with some newer artists and artists who have never appeared in Chicago or at least at the Chicago Jazz Festival.