Chicago Jazz Festival

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The Chicago Jazz Festival is a popular and well-known four day free celebration of jazz in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. It is run by the Jazz Institute of Chicago during Labor Day weekend, integrating both world-famous and local artists.

Before 1979, three different annual jazz festivals sponsored all were scheduled for August in Grant Park. Because of this, the Mayor's Office of Special Events decided to help join the three different festivals together into the Chicago Jazz Festival with a week of free jazz performances. The newly created festival was famous for performances dedicated to Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, as well as many other performances by the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Famous performers include Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Anthony Braxton, Betty Carter, Lionel Hampton, Chico O'Farrill's big band, Jimmy Dawkins, Von Freeman, Johnny Frigo, Slide Hampton, Roy Haynes, and many others.

Complimentary sets have often been scheduled simultaneously, such as at the DuSable Museum. The festival is part of a summer-long series of concerts and festivals, including Taste of Chicago and the Chicago Blues Festival