Deer Park Town Center is excited to present “Jazz Patio” on August 11 from noon until 5pm. The festival kicks off at noon and will feature four different Chicagoland jazz groups, alfresco seating in a garden setting, and will be headlined by Chicago’s Favorite Jazz Woman, Judy Roberts and her quartet. The groups include vocalist Ava Logan and her trio, the Spiral Jazz Quartet, Gypsy Jazz group LePercolateur and closing out the festival will be Judy Roberts and her quartet.
Since she moved to Phoenix two years ago Roberts has had limited engagements in the Chicagoland area and her performance at Jazz Patio will be one of the only appearances of Judy and her quartet in the area. “We are very excited to help start a new jazz festival at Deer Park Town Center” says CEO of Chicago Jazz Magazine Mike Jeffers. “ This is a unique opportunity for people in the Northwest Suburbs to hear some of the finest jazz groups in Chicagoland without having to travel downtown Chicago.”
In addition to the live jazz there will be stilt walkers, face painters and other events for the kids. For more information visit ChicagoJazz.com and ShopDeerParkTownCenter.com or call 847.726.7755.
About Judy Roberts
The Chicago Tribune has awarded pianist/singer Judy Roberts the title "Chicago's Favorite Jazz Woman." Yet she is also recognized as a worldwide jazz star thanks to the success of her international recordings and concert performances. From the Midwest to Phoenix to Singapore, Judy is best known for her fun-loving approach to an eclectic and extensive repertoire, her hard-swinging piano playing, her ability to combine lush and sensitive vocals with rapid-fire scat singing, and for her unique ability to communicate with her audience in a relaxed and intimate style.
A multiple Grammy nominee, her twenty-plus album/CD releases include the "The Other World," whose hit single "Señor Blues" was number one on the jazz charts and in radio airplay; the album "Trio," with Ray Brown and Jeff Hamilton; the song "Twilight World," co-written with piano diva Marian McPartland (on whose NPR show "Piano Jazz" Judy has guested twice); and her international hit rendition of Dave Frishberg's "My Attorney Bernie."
In addition to club and concert appearances, Judy performs at such jazz festivals as the North Sea Fest in Holland, the Singapore Jazz Fest, the Chicago Jazz Festival, and is a regularly featured artist on the Joe Segal and the Jazz Cruise Line jazz cruises, as well as the Newport Beach and West Coast Jazz Parties.
About Ava Logan
It takes a bit of courage to step into the shoes of a legend – and not just any old legend, but one of the most beloved vocalists since the dawn of American popular song. But if starring in Ella Fitzgerald First Lady of Song a decade ago was at all daunting for Ava Logan, you couldn’t tell it from her shimmering performance in the show, produced by Chicago’s Black Ensemble Theater. Capturing Ella in mid-career, Logan showed off her “powerhouse voice,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss, and “sophisticated” style.
Portraying Ella proved an important step in Logan’s development as a jazz artist, as did playing Nancy Wilson in another BET production, Dynamite Divas. Logan has always had a great voice – one that no less a judge of jazz singing than the great Sheila Jordan called “lovely.” But it was her ability to absorb the signature styles of Ella and Nancy – and Sarah and Carmen and Dinah – that took Logan where she wanted to go as an artist. To that point where her influences are ingredients in her own recipe for success, and Ava Logan is a striking original in her own right.
lePercolateur-Hipster Gypsy Jazz
Beckoned by the dulcet tones of violin, bass, and the female voice spiraling through the darkness, the stranger was helplessly drawn towards the last lit trailer in camp that seemed to have sprung forth from another time. This chance meeting's outcome: lePercolateur.
Fueled by coffee black as the night the musicians played 'til the sun began painting the eastern horizon red, and carnivale rose 'round them from the ether. Winding their caravan through the windiest of cities, lePercolateur has spent the time since this fateful night sweeping in to transport concert-goers to a time where music was a liberating and cathartic respite from persecution--where the frenetic energy of struggling to simply 'be' coalesced with the unbridled spirit of gypsy music and burgeoned into swing dancing.
The coming spring of 2012 finds lePercolateur slated to release their debut album as the latest band to join the Chicago Sessions record label. Between now and then, many more are sure to wake from a dreamlike daze wondering in which year they find themselves, and wishing it was what their senses told them. "a sly and surprising gypsy-jazz quintet who apply that idiom to modernistic pop tunes, as well as vintage jazz composition" - Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner
Spiral Jazz Quartet
“Mike Jeffers, a drummer and publisher of Chicago Jazz Magazine and one of the emerging voices on the city's jazz landscape.” - Howard Reich Chicago Tribune
Spiral combines some of Chicago's top musicians into one high powered group. Lead by Chicago Jazz Magazine publisher Mike Jeffers this group includes instrumentalists who have performed at many of Chicago's world famous jazz clubs and festivals. Along with drummer Mike Jeffers Spiral Jazz Quartet features saxophonist Mike Frost, B-3 organist Demos Petropoulos and trumpeter Steve Frost. The quartet always provides a hard driving swinging set packed with some legendary jazz standards and a few surprises to keep you on your listening toes!
Deer Park Town Center is managed by DDR, which owns and manages 538 value-oriented shopping centers representing 134 million square feet in 41 states, Puerto Rico and Brazil. The company's assets are concentrated in high barrier-to-entry markets with stable populations and high growth potential and its portfolio is actively managed to create long-term shareholder value. DDR is a self-administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DDR. Additional information about the company is available at www.ddr.com.
