On what turned out to be his final album, The Odyssey of Funk & Popular Music (1998), trumpeter Lester Bowie pulled off spirited interpretations of tunes by Puccini, Cole Porter, Harold Melvin, the Spice Girls, the Notorious B.I.G., and Marilyn Manson. It would’ve been audacious, if not downright ridiculous, for almost any other jazz musician to attempt such a mix, but to Bowie, who died of complications from liver cancer in November at age 58, it was as characteristic as the stogie he usually clamped between his middle finger and forefinger. Few musicians had such a predilection for jumbling musical hierarchies, and few explored the omnivorous nature of jazz with more verve or power.
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The lineup that’s been assembled to pay tribute to Bowie–a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago–isn’t quite as diverse, but it fittingly brings together musicians from all over the jazz and improvised music scene. This week the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble with Fareed Haque, north-side improvisers the Vandermark 5, groove experimentalists Isotope 217, and New Yorkers James Carter and Hamiett Bluiett will all perform in a concert whose proceeds will help send Bowie’s youngest daughter, Zola, to college. “No matter what our differences are, we’re all collectively committed to the desire to create,” says Ethnic Heritage Ensemble percussionist Kahil El’Zabar, who organized the event with Alana Rocklin, the jazz publicist at Delmark Records. “I don’t think there is a better model of a person who was open about community than him. It’s really the strength of Lester that’s inspired something that doesn’t happen enough.”
The concert is at 7:30 PM on Thursday, January 20, at Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn. Tickets are $25 at the door, but can be purchased for $20 in advance at Jazz Record Mart, all Reckless Records locations,
