This year’s Chicago Jazz Festival doesn’t have a single theme, but rather celebrates the centennials of three of the music’s greats: trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, and singer Ella Fitzgerald. Each artist transformed the trajectory of the tradition in different ways, and their tribute sets are radically different from one another too.

On Thursday night, Gillespie’s most famous protege, Jon Faddis (a Chicago favorite thanks to his involvement in the Chicago Jazz Ensemble), leads a strong orchestra to honor his mentor’s storied, multifaceted career. The next night, Jason Moran—arguably the most important pianist in jazz today—presents an idiosyncratic adaptation of Monk’s famous 1959 Town Hall Concert, augmenting his ten-piece band with multimedia elements that use material from the Jazz Loft Project archives of photographer W. Eugene Smith. Finally, on Saturday evening, several sterling Chicago singers join master postbop vocalist Sheila Jordan to tackle songs associated with Ella Fitzgerald.

The Reader‘s preview coverage of the festival focuses on seven of the many compelling characters in the lineup: cornetist Josh Berman, guitarists Tim Fitzgerald and Mary Halvorson, reedist Roscoe Mitchell, and drummers Allison Miller, Louis Moholo-Moholo, and Matt Wilson. Other highlights include saxophonist Donny McCaslin on Friday evening, performing with the same group he led on David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar; Chicago trombonist Ray Anderson on Saturday, returning to his hometown with the trio BassDrumBone; and beloved New Orleans party starters the Rebirth Brass Band on Sunday night. (Full disclosure: I volunteer on the committee that programs the fest.)

Chicago Jazz Festival Thu 8/31, 11 AM-9:30 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park Fri 9/1, 12 PM-9:30 PM, Millennium Park Sat-Sun 9/2-3, 11:30 AM-9:30 PM, Millennium Park

The festival kicks off at 11 AM on Thursday morning (earlier than in recent years) with the Jazz Village, an all-day trade fair at the Chicago Cultural Center that gathers record labels, presenters, and other jazz-centric organizations. After a slate of Cultural Center concerts that begins at noon, the music moves to Millennium Park that evening.

The Jazz Festival is also hitting the airwaves again, for the first time since 2001. Public radio station WDCB 90.9 FM, operated by the College of DuPage, will partner with the WFMT Radio Network to simulcast three sets: the George Freeman/Mike Allemana Quartet on Thursday, the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio on Friday, and the Ella Fitzgerald celebration on Saturday. The rooftop programming at the Harris Theater returns, but the stage is no longer called Young Jazz Lions—high school and college bands perform under that rubric on Saturday, and Sunday’s lineup features relatively advanced players from the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s NextGen program.  v

Fitzgerald makes his Jazz Festival debut leading the seven-piece band Full House.

By John Corbett

The New York guitarist brings her daring but sophisticated octet to Chicago for the first time.

By Peter Margasak

Her sextet Boom Tic Boom reached new heights last year on Otis Was a Polar Bear.

He’s historically worked slowly and carefully, but he’s playing the Jazz Festival with an untested new quartet.

The last survivor of legendary 60s group the Blue Notes introduces his current band to Chicago..

By John Corbett

When the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago were still young, Chuck Nessa’s label helped raise them up.

By Bill Meyer

His new album, Honey and Salt, gives a mature voice to a love he learned as a teenager.

By Peter Margasak

Every set from Thursday morning till Sunday night, at the Cultural Center and in Millennium Park

The city’s usual bounty of shows gets a big bump this weekend.