By touring together or appearing on one another’s recordings, important artists like Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, and Tortoise have helped establish Chicago’s reputation as a friendly musical community unconstrained by stylistic orthodoxies–and that reputation has proved irresistible to many up-and-coming jazz players in the last decade. But when reedist Keefe Jackson moved to Chicago in 2001 from Arkansas, he wasn’t thinking about all that. “I was familiar with the history of music that had happened here, but I didn’t really know what was currently taking place,” he says. “I had heard a couple of Vandermark records, but for me it wasn’t about coming here because of what was happening. I just assumed there were lots of opportunities and musicians.”
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He assumed correctly, of course, and within a few months Jackson, now 29, had fallen in with the loose group of younger players who gig regularly at the Hungry Brain. Now his tenor saxophone figures prominently in several strong ensembles, from the Chicago Luzern Exchange to the Lucky 7s–and late last month at the Hideout, after more than five years of collaborations and sideman work, he released his first album as a bandleader. The nuanced postbop on the superb Ready Everyday (Delmark), by Jackson’s sextet Fast Citizens, is a far cry from the in-your-face free jazz that made the 90s Chicago scene famous, but the tunes still give the players lots of leeway to reimagine the direction and complexion of their lively contrapuntal themes.
Jackson would return to Fayetteville before long, though, to look after his mother, who died of thyroid cancer in 1998. The local economy was more robust–Wal-Mart, which has its corporate headquarters in nearby Bentonville, was enjoying a string of particularly good years, and a slew of new restaurants and cafes had opened. Jackson found gigs playing mainstream jazz almost every night and for the first time was able to support himself as a musician. Still, he made repeated visits to New York and Chicago, looking for a more adventurous scene. “In order to make a name for yourself you have to live in a big city, for jazz anyway,” he says. In Chicago he saw concerts at clubs like the Velvet Lounge, the New Apartment Lounge, and the Empty Bottle, and the atmosphere and audiences appealed to him. Soon he forgot about going to New York. “Chicago felt like it wasn’t as expensive,” he says, “and it was more friendly and open.”
Another Way to Skin That Cat
