Mike Reed will unveil 'The City Was Yellow'
By Howard Reich
Sep 07, 2018 at 9:25 am
Last year, the Orchestre National de Jazz in France invited drummer-impresario Mike Reed to compose a suite of pieces dedicated to Chicago, where he’s based.
But Reed — founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, creator of the Constellation arts center and managing partner of the Hungry Brain music venue — believed he had a better idea.
“I said, ‘That’s music that’s already been written,’” he explains.
Meaning that there’s already a vast body of repertoire written by Chicagoans for and about the city.
“I’ve been working for the last couple of years — not in deep commitment, because I’ve got a bunch of other things going on — but, essentially, I’m collecting a bunch of compositions made in Chicago from 1980 to 2010,” adds Reed.
“Essentially, I’m trying to collect a ‘Real Book’ created during that time period,” says Reed, referring to collections of standard tunes that musicians sometimes use.
“For a few reasons. One, because I’ve been in other cities, like Amsterdam, where they have a project like that, and I thought it was really cool.
“If you’re in New Orleans, there are 20 or 30 local anthems that everybody has got to know. Whether you’re a reggae band or a punk-rock band or a jazz band, you have to know those tunes. I don’t think it will ever get to that point (in Chicago). It’s a different type of culture and community.
“But what if we had these little books: Let’s play this Hal Russell piece, or this Malachi Thompson tune, or this Jeff Stitely piece. It becomes a common language, a set of tunes that we all share and know.”