ARTIST CORPS IS AN INITIATIVE PAYING MUSICIANS TO PRODUCE PERFORMANCES IN NEIGHBORHOODS ACROSS THE SOUTH AND WEST SIDEs.

The Artist Corps program is an initiative to expand the power and potential of community- and artist-driven programs in neighborhoods. Artists-in-neighborhoods programs facilitate storytelling and community building; provide opportunities for healing and resilience; and create connections to advocacy, mutual aid, neighborhood health, and equity initiatives. The Artist Corps program is funded by the Walder Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Learn more about 2022 artist corps artists IN this interview with JEREMIAH COLLIER, ISAIAH SPENCER, and THADDEUS TUKES

Hosted and produced by Cheryl K. on WGXC 90.7 FM: Situation Fluxus.

2022 ARTISTS

Jeremiah Collier was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and has been playing a full set of drums since the age of two. (He started playing drums professionally when he was twelve.) In other words, he grew up playing, and developed his talents through the influence of the Baptist Church, where he was introduced to many different genres of music and which still plays an important part in his identity.

During high school, Collier traveled as part of the Thelonious Institute Monk All-Star Jazz Quintet and played with world-renowned artists such as Don Braden, Antonio Hart, and Sean Jones. Since then, he has worked and recorded with many of Chicago’s household names (and some of his own mentors), including Ernest Dawkins, Ari Brown, Pharez Whitted, Robert Irving III, Frank Russell, Marquis Hill, the late great Mr. Willie Pickens, and others.

In 2020, Collier joined The Stanley Clarke Band. He has also been working with his own band, JCANDTHEREUP, searching for a new vibe and hoping to create a footprint in the music industry. His first EP is currently under construction.

Since 1998, Isaiah Spencer has been an active figure on the Chicago, national, and international music scenes. His talents have provided him with opportunities to share the stage with jazz and blues greats Buddy Guy, Pine Top Perkins, and Eddie Clearwater, and jazz luminaries such as Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Donald Harrison, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, and James Moody. He has had the privilege to perform with Nicole Mitchell, Mark De Clive Lowe, Malachi Favors, Roscoe Mitchell, Cyrus Chestnut, Corey Wilkes, Maurice Brown, and Vijay Iyer, and has toured with William Parker, Ernest Dawkins, and others.

Spencer directs his own drum camp program, and through his volunteering teaches children how music can help propel a person past obstacles and on to greater heights. He has served as a mentor to underserved children in Chicago, and is currently the assistant band director and percussion teacher at New Trier High School.

Thaddeus Tukes is America's rising star vibraphonist. A Chicago native, Tukes is a jazz composer, arranger, and percussionist who "brings poetry to the vibraphone" (Chicago Tribune). He is a graduate of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and Northwestern University, where he studied jazz vibraphone, piano, and journalism.

He has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, Symphony Center in Chicago, and the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, and recently traveled with his Chicago Freedom Ensemble to play the World Expo 2020 Dubai as the "world's greatest vibraphonist." From hosting multi-generational jam sessions to "keeping jazz alive on the South Side," Tukes has emerged as a shining force on the Chicago and American jazz scenes. When not performing, he can be found leading percussion ensembles at various elementary and high schools in the Chicago area.