Elastic Arts Hosts Legendary South Side Musicians

AACM Musician Hanah Jon Taylor

Susan Fox, from Elastic Arts, spoke to us about "Intersections," a collaborative weekly concert series with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).  The title of the series is not incidental: Fox and Chicago artist Alpha Bruton conceived it as they recognized all the intersections that these concerts symbolize. Fox cited an intersection of musical traditions, of north vs. south side, of Chicago vs. Madison (Connections that Fox made while running Madison’s Freedom Fest launched Intersections), as well as Elastic’s location on the Diversey and Milwaukee intersection.


One of the most interesting intersections is north vs. south. Before performing at Elastic, the Velvet Lounge on Cermak served as the AACM's home. Unfortunately, The Velvet Lounge wasn’t able to survive much longer after the death of legendary owner and musician Fred Anderson. Anderson’s passing last June was a huge loss to the Chicago artist community, especially as he was a mentor to many AACM musicians. Upon the Lounge’s closing, Ed Wilkerson, Jr. Chicago saxophone and clarinet player reflected, “Until something is gone, you don’t realize how much a part of your life it was.” 

For the Logan Square arts community the loss is bittersweet. While we mourn the closing of the legendary south side club, we are also tremendously excited to be hosting the AACM as they inspire us with their tremendous creative energy.

Enjoy the music of Hanah Jon Taylor Artet Saturday, May 7 at 9PM. 

Other "Intersections" concerts are scheduled for:

May 14   Tatsu Aoki and the Miyumi Project 

May 21   Jeff Chan and the Chicago Clarinet Conglomerate 

*Elastic is a BYOB venue located over Friendship Restaurant at 2830 N. Milwaukee Ave. 

For more information check out the Elastic website: www.elasticarts.org 

--Julia Pagnamenta