Hunter Diamond + Mike Reed

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

TIME: 3:00-4:00oPM

Venue: Augustana Lutheran Church. 5500 South Woodlawn Ave.

MIKE REED

Mike Reed is a musician, composer, bandleader, and arts presenter based in Chicago. Over the last two decades, he has emerged as a dominant force within the city’s diverse artistic community, both through the music he makes and the live events he produces.

Reed is the founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, current programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival, and owner and director of the acclaimed performing arts venue Constellation. In 2016, he also became the owner of the Hungry Brain, a cozy neighborhood tavern doubling as a hothouse for jazz, improvised, experimental, and contemporary classical music. He is a devoted cultural advocate committed to providing platforms for artistic expression, unhindered by commercial pressures.

Reed also leads or co-leads several working bands, including the post-bop quartet People, Places & Things, an expanded iteration of that project called Flesh & Bone, an improvisation-heavy quintet called Loose Assembly, and the expansive octet Living by Lanterns. Over the last couple of years, he’s also played in Artifacts, a collective trio (with flutist Nicole Mitchell and cellist Tomeka Reid) devoted to interpreting music by members of the AACM. In addition, he works as a key member of vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz’s trio Sun Rooms, as well as the octet led by bassist Jason Roebke.

A former Doris Duke Foundation United States Artists fellow, Reed has been listed as a Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year, one of Chicago Magazine’s most influential people, and one of DownBeat’s Best Things About Jazz.

Hunter Diamond

A Chicago-based woodwind and sound artist, Hunter Diamond uses a range of woodwinds, percussion instruments, and electronics to engage in a mixture of conceptual, composed, and improvised performances. He performs with many groups in Chicago, including Black Diamond, Dessus-Dessous, Herbsaint, Metal and Wood, Marvin Tate, and Mike Reed’s The Big Gig.

Diamond won a Luminarts Jazz Fellowship in 2017, and with an initial award and continued grant support, he has realized many artistic goals, including recording and touring with Black Diamond; a multi-media solo project called MASKS; and a 2022 co-release between Curio Records (which Diamond founded) and We Jazz Records (Helsinki), which will include a European tour at the end of the year.

In 2019, Diamond spent time as Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, studying composition and improvisation with flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell. Later in the year, he debuted several of the resulting new pieces during a month-long residency at The Whistler.

Diamond visits New Orleans regularly and collaborates with some of the city’s most creative musicians, including James Singleton, Helen Gillet, Aurora Nealand, Justin Peake, Jeff Albert, and Mikel Patrick Avery. In keeping with his love of New Orleans music and culture, in 2018 he began collaborating with chef Chris Reed to develop the “Got You Some” party series, which pairs New Orleans music and cuisine in venues across Chicago. From this partnership came the band Herbsaint, which treats Hungry Brain audiences to early New Orleans jazz.

In addition to his active performance and teaching schedule, Diamond is also a producer at Elastic Arts Foundation, a membership committee member at Experimental Sound Studio, 2022 curator of the 3-on-3 series at the arts venue Constellation, staff member at the Pitchfork Music Festival, and a graphic designer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

The musicians:

Hunter Diamond – woodwinds, percussion, and electronics

Mike Reed – drums