[Dixielandjazz] Jazz consortium in Chicago

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML

From: Norman Vickers

 

Jazz consortium in Chicago

 

I found this of interest in Sunday's Chicago Tribute Mon 7-22-07.  I hope
you will.  May have application in your community.

 

www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-mxa0722artscoverjazzjul22,1,3445068
.story


chicagotribune.com


How innovative funding transformed city's jazz scene


By Howard Reich

Tribune arts critic

July 22, 2007



Two years ago, several of Chicago's most famous corporations and foundations
dared to invent a new model for funding the arts.

In a dramatic move, they joined forces to create an informal philanthropic
consortium dedicated to supporting music. This meant, in effect, that each
of these big-league organizations risked losing some of the high visibility
-- or the "branding" power, in marketers' terms -- that accrues with being
the sole or lead underwriter of an arts event.

More radical still, they decided to pour their resources not into safe and
conventional musical outfits, such as symphony orchestras and opera
companies, but into a less formally organized music that long has been an
orphan when it comes to funding: jazz.

Since then, the aptly named Chicago Jazz Partnership has funneled
approximately $1.5 million in cash (and nearly as much in in-kind
contributions, such as production costs and musician airfares) into a music
that's internationally identified with this city.

Granted, that may not seem like a lot of money when compared with the
funding of institutions such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which has an
operating budget of $57.6 million and an endowment of $202 million. But it's
huge in jazz, a music that somehow has flourished for most of a century on
nightclub cover charges and bar tabs, but with scant institutional support
(multimillion dollar organizations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New
York, and SFJAZZ, in San Francisco, remain the exceptions in the low-budget
world of jazz).

So when the stage lights go up Thursday night for Millennium Park's third
annual "Made in Chicago" jazz series, a brilliantly programmed lineup
underwritten by the Chicago Jazz Partnership, audiences once again can
witness how this novel funding approach has altered the musical landscape of
this city.

"It certainly has introduced new audiences to jazz," says Amina Dickerson,
who heads corporate giving for Kraft Foods and involved the company in the
Chicago Jazz Partnership from the outset, in 2005.

Considering that approximately 50,000 listeners have attended each season of
"Made in Chicago," Dickerson does not exaggerate.

"I think we've also shown that there is great breadth and strength in the
discipline [of jazz]," adds Dickerson, "and that it's dynamic, not stuck in
a certain time period."

Indeed, "Made in Chicago" shows such as Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez's
historic collaboration with Chicago's 911 Mambo Orchestra and cornetist Rob
Mazurek's effectively titled Exploding Star Orchestra shattered many myths
that still hover around jazz. By attracting listeners of every demographic
imaginable, these concerts -- and others -- demolished the commonly held
misconception of jazz as a music for an effete, elite few.

To see rambunctious families and romantic couples converging on the Pritzker
Pavilion for the free concerts in large numbers (the biggest ones, such as
Perez's in 2005, attracted more than 10,000 listeners), was to behold the
impact of the Chicago Jazz Partnership.

A marketing study conducted by the consortium in 2005 estimated that
although jazz commanded a local audience of at least 750,000 to 1 million
(and possibly twice those figures), the entire non-profit jazz scene in
Chicago generated about $4 million in annual revenue. The huge Chicago jazz
market clearly was being underserved by the philanthropic community, and the
Chicago Jazz Partnership aimed to change that.

Not surprisingly, the partnership's plans generated passionate interest on
jazz Web sites and blogs across the country. Moreover, in its first year the
consortium was honored by the New York-based Jazz Journalists Association
for "innovative philanthropic support of Chicago jazz."

A consortium in flux

Yet, from the start, the consortium committed to a three-year trial run,
leaving its admirers to wonder what happens now, as the third season
commences.

A few hours before the "Made in Chicago" series launches Thursday night,
current and potential members of the Chicago Jazz Partnership will convene
in a closed-door meeting to plan for the future and try to woo new partners.

Furthermore, the very nature of the consortium -- in which several
organizations informally commit to pooling their resources in the name of
jazz -- is in flux, say its members (this year, the Chicago Jazz Partnership
includes Boeing, Kraft, JP Morgan Chase, Chicago Community Trust and the
Joyce Foundation, with in-kind support from United Airlines and the Fairmont
Hotel).

"It's a maturing entity that's becoming more of an organization than it was
before," says Jim Newcomb, Boeing's senior manager of brand management and
advertising, and an early champion of the group.

"The partnership started out as a sort of loose agreement between a bunch of
interested parties who wanted to figure out how to help jazz become part of
the mainstream of philanthropic support -- that was the whole goal.

"Because jazz was seen as so far out of the mainstream," many major funders
were reluctant to touch it, says Newcomb.

"They had great products, great musicians and great stuff -- they didn't
know how to translate that into great support," he adds.

The Chicago Jazz Partnership has helped change that. Non-profit
organizations such as the Jazz Institute of Chicago (which helps program
Millennium Park's "Made in Chicago" series) and Jazz Unites Inc. (which
produces South Side and downtown events throughout the year), have developed
ongoing relationships with several funding members of the consortium. And
they're not the only ones. Far-flung groups such as the avant-garde
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Asian Improv
aRts Midwest and the PianoForte Foundation have received funding from
Chicago Jazz Partnership members they never had so much as contacted before.

The ingenuity of this model is that any corporation or foundation in the
partnership can contribute money to any particular jazz organization, to
suit its own funding mandate. So if Boeing is impressed with the work of the
AACM or Jazz Unites, as it has been, it can direct its cash to that
organization -- it has no obligation to conform to the wishes of other
foundation members. If the Joyce Foundation sees particular merit in the
Asian Improv aRts Midwest, which it does, it can write a check accordingly.

But the peril of this approach is that this confederation of jazz funders is
so loose -- with each organization deciding independently what to
contribute, and when -- that it sometimes risks coming apart.

Some observers feared that was the case when several of the corporate
executives who had committed their respective organizations to the
consortium switched to new jobs.

That's what happened with Kassie Davis, former senior program officer for
Chicago Community Trust, and Warren Chapman, former president of Bank One
Foundation (now JP Morgan Chase), both left their positions.

With new faces filling old jobs, the funding recipients wondered if the jazz
spigot might be turned off.

"We were afraid that because there was almost like a second generation of
leadership in funding, that it would start getting diluted," says Helen
Doria, executive director of Millennium Park, which has received
approximately $750,000 to cover three seasons of "Made in Chicago."

"We were nervous when Kassie and Warren" moved on, says Dickerson, of Kraft.
"This was a critical year. ... Just making sure we continued was important."

To the relief of Chicago's jazz community, the partnership survived, with
all of its first-year members returning for this third year, and others
signing on.

But Newcomb, of Boeing, hopes that from here on the partnership can start to
cohere more as an organization.

"The problem was, we created a very jazzlike entity, in that it was like a
band that came together when we had gigs," he says.

"But that's not a good way to help people understand you and what you're
doing. ...

"My hope is that it will become more systematized, with a more coordinated
sense of how to better help the jazz scene."

Key to that effort, says almost everyone involved, will be adding more
corporations and foundations to the mix. With greater heft and additional
funding at its disposal, the Chicago Jazz Partnership could nurture
additional programs in Chicago neighborhoods (outside of downtown) and
create arts education and jam-session opportunities for gifted young
musicians.

Jazz, city inextricably linked

Yet it's worth noting that the Chicago Jazz Partnership has bankrolled the
"Made in Chicago" jazz series and funded myriad other, smaller jazz
initiatives at an unusually turbulent time for jazz in Chicago. With WBEZ-FM
91.5 having abandoned the music earlier this year, with HotHouse and the
Jazz Showcase having lost their homes (both have announced plans to
resurface elsewhere), 2007 might have unfolded as a grim year for Chicago
jazz.

Instead, the Chicago Jazz Partnership has significantly countered those
losses and stands poised to do more in coming seasons.

Why direct the money to jazz?

"Jazz is really a part of Chicago's history -- there are very important
chapters of jazz history and the evolution of jazz artists that came
together only because they were in Chicago," says Dickerson, of Kraft.

"I think that's part of what we've always felt is important about the
Chicago Jazz Partnership: To help people understand the unique role in jazz
that Chicago occupied and continues to occupy."

Adds Michelle Boone, culture program officer at the Joyce Foundation, "We're
trying to help bring credibility to the art form that other genres already
have."

"Jazz should be ranked up there with the Chicago Symphony," she says.

"It's really a no-brainer."

- - -

The list of 'ingredients'

Following is the complete lineup for "Made in Chicago: Home Cooked Jazz,"
this year's installment of the annual series.

Each event takes place at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, near
Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. All concerts are free and begin at 6:30
p.m. In addition, each concert will be preceded at 6 p.m. by a short set
from young Chicago artists. For more information, call 312-742-1168 or visit
millenniumpark.org.

Thursday

Great Black Music Ensemble: "Tribute to Fletcher Henderson." Traditions
converge when the innovative Great Black Music Ensemble, under the direction
of Mwata Bowden, performs music of swing master Henderson. The South Shore
Youth Jazz Ensemble opens the evening.

Aug. 2

Dave Specter's "Blues/Jazz Summit Chicago I." Blues guitarist Specter
partners with Chicago blues and jazz figures, including Sharon Lewis, Billy
Branch, Ari Brown, Jimmy Johnson and Chris Foreman. The Gallery 37 After
School Matters Jazz Band opens the show.

Aug. 9

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Orchestra: "Tribute to Alice Coltrane," with
special guest Myra Melford. Flutist-composer Mitchell has written an
evening's worth of new music for this concert. Jazz Institute of Chicago's
Jazz Links Ensemble opens.

Aug. 16

" Legends and Lions: Ragtime and Beyond." Chicago ragtime genius Reginald
Robinson performs orchestral versions of his compositions with the Fulcrum
Point New Ragtime Chamber Group; innovative pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, a
founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, plays
a solo set. Jazz Institute of Chicago's Jazz Links Ensemble opens.

Aug. 23

" Sirens of Song: Dee Alexander's Tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah
Washington." Alexander, one of this city's great vocalists, leads her
Evolution Quartet in music of two earlier masters. Jazz Institute of
Chicago's Jazz Links Ensemble opens.

Aug. 27

"Chicago Jazz Philharmonic On Tap: Songs from the Chicago Songbook."
Trumpeter Orbert Davis leads his Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in partnership
with singers Maggie Brown, Jackie Allen and Terisa Griffin, plus tap dancers
from Lane Alexander's Chicago Human Rhythm Project. Jazz Institute of
Chicago's Jazz Links Ensemble opens.

 
--End--

 

 

F. Norman Vickers

3720 McClellan Road

Pensacola, FL 32503-3412

850-432-9743 (home)

850-324-5022 (cell)

850-433-8382 ( Jazz Society of Pensacola)

nvickers1 at cox.net ( that's ONE not L)

www.jazzpensacola.com