Latest news with #WTTW
Time Out
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Wait, is the Green Mill jazz club being sold? Here's what's going on with the iconic venue
One of Chicago's most storied nightlife landmarks, the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, is in the headlines again. But don't panic just yet, jazz lovers: While the historic Uptown building that houses the century-old club is officially for sale, the Green Mill itself isn't going anywhere. The two-story structure at the corner of Broadway and Lawrence, where Al Capone once drank and Billie Holiday once performed, hit the market earlier this week. The building spans more than 21,000-square feet and includes eight commercial units, including buzzy neighbors like Birrieria Zaragoza and Le Nocturne. Current owner Dave Jemilo, who bought the Green Mill in 1986 and the building in 2021 for $5 million, hasn't publicly commented on the listing. However, sources familiar with the sale told Crain's that the club's operations are expected to continue uninterrupted, according to Block Club Chicago. That's welcome news for locals and tourists who flock to the velvet-draped venue for nightly jazz, slam poetry and a dose of Prohibition-era Chicago lore. The Green Mill has long been a living time capsule: Its curved bar, vintage booths and dim amber lighting conjure the days when mobsters sipped whiskey in the infamous 'Capone booth,' strategically placed with sightlines to both exits. If that weren't enough intrigue, there's also the tunnel system under the club, a relic of its gangster past. Once used for bootlegging and backroom escapes, the underground lair is accessible by a trapdoor behind the bar and has been featured in several films. View this post on Instagram A post shared by WTTW | Chicago's PBS Station (@wttwchicago) Jemilo's ownership transformed the then-dilapidated joint into an international jazz destination. 'I didn't buy a gold mine,' he once told WTTW. 'I bought a dump and made it a gold mine.' Under his watch, the Green Mill helped birth the global poetry slam movement and attracted generations of jazz talent. Though no asking price is listed, the building's landmark status protects it from major structural changes or demolition. So even if a new landlord steps in, the soul of the Green Mill—the music, the mythology, the martinis—should stay intact. In other words: The neon still glows, the horns still wail and for now, your favorite Uptown haunt isn't closing its doors. Just don't try to sneak into the tunnels.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
Young activist wins award for eye-opening discoveries about birds' movements: 'Mutually beneficial for people and wildlife'
A young activist who created Black Birders Week won a prestigious award from the North Carolina Wildlife Federation for her research on environmental volunteerism. Urban ecologist Deja Perkins received the honor of Young Conservationist of the Year. The website Black AF in STEM describes Black Birders Week as "a bold and unapologetic reclamation of the Black community's role in environmental spaces." This year, Black Birders Week is May 25-31. Perkins created the event in 2020 after a Black birdwatcher named Christian Cooper had the police called on him by a white woman in Central Park after he asked her to leash her dog. In response, Perkins, who was then working on a master's degree at North Carolina State University, co-organized Black Birders Week. "Any one of us could have been Christian Cooper," she told Science News at the time. NCWF's annual awards celebrate organizations and individuals who contribute to the protection and awareness of the state's natural ecosystem. Perkins, who once thought there was no "more to nature than zoos," as Chicago PBS station WTTW reported, was recognized for her dissertation, titled "The Geography of Participation: A Geospatial Analysis of Socio-spatial Gaps in US Participatory Science." It analyzes how data about who volunteers for "environmental monitoring" can illuminate inequities and other societal factors. "I am interested in using geographic information systems to look at past and current patterns to help plan for cities that are sustainable, resilient to climate change, and mutually beneficial for people and wildlife," she wrote on her website. By observing where birds are present — or absent — she derives information about, as WTTW wrote, "an area's socioeconomics or historical systemic structures like racism." Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Perkins' early childhood in Chicago didn't include much nature until her mother signed her up for a conservation program in high school. She came to appreciate how even in urban areas, people work to maintain wild spaces and protect wildlife. At Tuskegee University in Alabama, Perkins developed her love for birds and what they can teach humanity, majoring in natural resources. Perkins, who believes in the power of local action, also started the organization Naturally Wild, which, according to its website, "empowers Black-identifying individuals and people of color to explore and engage with the wildlife and natural spaces in their neighborhoods." On top of that, the seemingly unstoppable Perkins co-hosts the podcast Bring Birds Back. The podcast's website describes it as "a show about the joy of birds and the ways that humans can help them through simple, everyday actions." "We are out here doing the work to create the change we want to see!" Perkins posted on Instagram. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Chicago Tribune
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Dick Carter, producer and director of WTTW arts programming, dies
Dick Carter was a prolific producer and director for WTTW-Ch. 11 who from the 1960s through the '90s oversaw the making of dozens of music and arts programs, some of which aired nationally. Carter's best-known production was 'Soundstage,' which showcased major musical acts over its 11-year run in the 1970s and '80s. Carter also was an expert at directing dance programs, and he directed and produced telecasts of numerous ballets created by the late Chicago ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page. 'He could work in dance and music and opera and 'Soundstage,' but he could even make a talking-head show like 'Chicago Tonight' or 'Chicago Week in Review' exciting,' said longtime WTTW producer Jamie Ceaser. Carter, 85, died of complications from prostate cancer April 11 at his home in Palm Springs, California, said his husband, John MacMillan. He moved to Palm Springs in 2000. Born in Flint, Michigan, Carter grew up in nearby East Lansing. He played the organ and initially considered being a music major at Michigan State University before receiving a degree in broadcasting. Carter worked first for PBS station KTCA-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he directed dance and opera programs. He joined WTTW in 1967 where early on, he directed station fundraising programs such as 'Stars for Eleven.' Carter also oversaw Channel 11-produced programs that were nationally distributed. One of his earliest WTTW productions was directing 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie,' the puppet-and-adult show produced in Chicago from 1947 until 1957 on two local network stations. In the late 1960s, WTTW revived the show, which was popular with children and adults, and distributed it nationally under the direction of Carter, who had started watching the show at age 11. Carter was executive producer of WTTW's 'Chicago Festival,' an award-winning series in the late 1960s and early 1970s that provided a local showcase for all segments of the arts. Carter also directed segments of 'Chicago Festival,' including dance programs. In 1968, WTTW won its first National Educational Television award for its 'Chicago Festival' broadcast of the comic ballet 'Coppelia,' by the Illinois Ballet Company. Carter won an award for directing that telecast. In a 1971 Tribune interview, Carter acknowledged the innate challenges of directing dance on TV. 'Ballet is always choreographed for the stage,' Carter said. 'Shots would be so wide that people wouldn't see what's going on. We change a good deal of the choreography, having the dancers move diagonally back and forth in the camera instead of across the stage.' In 1978, Carter produced and directed an opera version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Hansel and Gretel,' and a telecast of Page's ballet 'Frankie and Johnny.' In 1982, Carter produced and directed a one-hour production of Page's ballet of 'The Merry Widow.' The program cost WTTW $275,000 to hire a cast and build scenery, and the production, which aired in 1984, won a national Peabody award. Carter also directed a TV version of Page's 1961 work, 'Die Fledermaus,' for WTTW in 1986. Carter's work for the station extended beyond dance programs. In 1974, Channel 11 gained the rights to four silent films starring Greta Garbo. Carter scored the films with musical soundtracks that he composed. Carter's participation in the nationally distributed 'Soundstage' program began toward the end of its first season, in 1975. Carter ultimately directed more than 60 episodes of 'Soundstage,' by his own count, according to a 2000 Tribune article about his career, and he was part of the program until its sign-off in 1985. One of Carter's most memorable 'Soundstage' episodes was a 1979 salute to jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. In a 1985 Tribune interview, Carter called the episode 'a high point of my career,' and added that jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie, who had appeared in the broadcast as well, came into the control room during the show and would tap Carter's shoulder with glee in time to Fitzgerald's singing. 'Even in the '70s, we never lip synched,' Carter told the Tribune. 'We had lots of time for each act. So we let performers do what they did best. And we made it real.' 'Despite low budgets, Carter gave the program a clean and professional look, with quick switching reverse angle and crowd reaction shots,' the Tribune wrote in 1985. Versatile, Carter could direct any kind of broadcast. He directed some episodes of the WTTW-founded national movie review show 'Sneak Previews,' and he also directed the news and public affairs programs 'Chicago Tonight' and 'Chicago Week in Review.' Carter also directed 'As We See It,' a 1979 series on school desegregation, and he produced and directed a show about the Hubbard Street Dance Company in 1981. Later, WTTW produced some original drama programming, and station bosses tapped Carter to direct a drama show, 'Jesse and the Bandit Queen,' a televised adaptation of a David Freeman play that was taped in 1986 and aired in 1988. And in 1987, he directed 'Remembering Bing,' a documentary about entertainer Bing Crosby. 'He was great at what he did, and he could get totally frustrated when things didn't go right,' recalled producer Tom Weinberg, who created WTTW's 'Image Union' program. 'He knew what he was doing in a major way. Nobody was as involved as he was.' Carter continued directing pledge drives for WTTW, including a notable one filmed at the Chicago Theatre in 1988 titled 'A Grand Night,' which featured Shirley Jones, the Hubbard Street Dance Company and many other acts. He directed the station's 1989 broadcast of the Ollie Awards, which honored quality children's programs across the nation. In 1991, Carter co-produced and co-directed a WTTW program about blues singer Koko Taylor, titled 'Queen of the Blues.' And in 1994, he directed 'Remembering Chicago,' an historic look at Chicago featuring Irv Kupcinet, Studs Terkel, Bill Gleason and Chuck Schaden. Carter directed episodes of a short-lived 'Soundstage' reboot called 'Center Stage,' a live concert television series that aired from 1993 until 1994 and that was an unprecedented co-production agreement between WTTW and cable's VH-1. Until his final years at WTTW, Carter produced and directed telecasts of the Golden Apple Foundation's Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching. Carter retired from WTTW at the start of 2000 and moved to California. He also is survived by a brother, John. There were no services.
Chicago Tribune
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
George Freeman, a trailblazing jazz guitarist who enjoyed a late-career renaissance, dies at 97
You could recognize George Freeman's playing anywhere. When tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons and his sextet appeared as guests on WTTW in 1970, most members of the band generally hewed to the backing progressions. Then there was Freeman, daringly traipsing around their harmonic fringes in hard-rocking, blazing solos. That was typical for the ever-adventurous Freeman, who died in Chicago on April 1. He was 97 years old. His death was confirmed by his nephew, Mark Freeman. While still in his teens, Freeman was among the fiMcBriderst musicians in Chicago, and one of the first jazz guitarists anywhere, to champion the bleeding-edge bebop of his idol, Charlie Parker. He eventually got to play with Parker, in now-lauded performances at the Pershing Ballroom in the early 1950s. The list of jazz greats with whom Freeman collaborated is long. Besides Parker and Ammons, for whom he wrote the hit 'The Black Cat,' he side-manned for Count Basie, Dexter Gordon, Lester Young, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy McGriff, Coleman Hawkins and Harrison Bankhead. Freeman's virtuosic presence on the bandstand long attracted critical and connoisseurial plaudits. 'Among the many talented musicians I first got to see and hear during my recently concluded three-and-a-half year stay in Chicago, one of the most memorable was guitarist George Freeman,' DownBeat editor Dan Morgenstern gushed in a 1971 profile for the magazine, the same year Freeman released his first album as a bandleader. 'Freeman's way of going outside is exciting but also musical, and doesn't sound at all like what other contemporary guitarists attempt in this vein.' Despite his résumé and insider acclaim, Freeman's career never took off the way he and his supporters expected. He was often overshadowed by his older brother Von Freeman, a monumental tenor player with whom he shared the Freeman family home in Greater Grand Crossing for decades. The younger Freeman sometimes suspected his perch at jazz's vanguard came at his own professional peril. 'The (radio) DJs didn't quite understand me, because I was going a different direction,' Freeman told the Tribune in 2023. 'My playing has always been so advanced. … It wasn't my time, because I came home. I was always coming home.' 'Home' for Freeman was Chicago, save some mid-career stints in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Born on the South Side on April 10, 1927, Freeman was the youngest of three boys, all musical: Von and oldest brother Eldridge 'Bruz' Freeman, a drummer, both joined Freeman for the first of Parker's Pershing Ballroom performances. Music was nurtured at home by their father, George Freeman, Sr., a police officer whose beat included clubs on the 35th Street strip, and their mother, Earle, herself a guitarist. The brothers would stay up late listening to jazz radio with their father, even if it meant showing up to school the next day bleary-eyed. Freeman was inspired to pick up guitar after he heard blues star T-Bone Walker play the long-defunct Rhumboogie Café in Hyde Park as a teen; too young to enter the club legally, he snuck in through a stage door to hear him. 'He was singing, had that guitar up behind his neck — he was dynamic,' Freeman later recounted to JazzTimes. Freeman was already sitting in for Eugene Wright's Dukes of Swing band when he passed through Walter Dyett's prestigious band program at DuSable High School. Freeman wasn't immune to the exacting pedagogue's fits of anger — he was booted from class on a couple occasions — but Dyett later invited him to join his swing orchestra at Rhumboogie Café, the same place Freeman fell in love with the guitar. In 1947, tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, a DuSable classmate, recruited Freeman to join the Joe Morris Orchestra. It was his first touring break, and his first move to New York. Freeman racked up early recording credits but unjustly missed out on a compositional credit for the band's first hit, 'Lowe Groovin'.' He quit in protest, landing back in Chicago just in time to link up with Parker for the Pershing residency. A few years later, Freeman was cheated out of another potentially career-making opportunity. He crossed paths with one of Sarah Vaughan's bandmates, who narrowly kept him from joining the epochal singer on the road. The musician, who held a grudge against Freeman, told him the wrong date for the start of the tour and he missed the whole thing. In the 1960s, Freeman linked up with soul and R&B singer Jackie Wilson and saxophonist Sil Austin, a partnership that opened the door to other genre-blending collaborations with Wild Bill Davis and Richard 'Groove' Holmes. After an unhappy few years in California, Freeman returned to Chicago, where he played in Gene Ammons' band from 1969 until Ammons' death in 1974. Freeman recorded his first albums under his own name after returning to Chicago, releasing 'Introducing George Freeman Live, with Charlie Earland Sitting In,' (1971), 'Birth Sign,' (1972), 'New Improved Funk' and 'Man and Woman' (both 1974) in quick succession. Another run of albums followed nearly 30 years later, mostly on singer and collaborator Joanie Pallatto's Southport label: 'Rebellion' (1995), 'George Burns!' (1999), and 'At Long Last, George' (2001, featuring singers Kurt Elling and René Marie). Freeman became a coveted guitarist-on-call for touring acts and worked the Chicago circuit for the rest of his life, often alongside Von. However, worsening vision problems from a childhood accident made it difficult for Freeman to travel to gigs without assistance. When Von Freeman died in 2012, Chicago's jazz community swooped in to ensure that George, then 85, was looked after. Drummer Mike Reed set Freeman up with fellow guitarist Mike Allemana, a former bandmate of Von's, for a month-long residency at his then-new venue Constellation. Freeman's bookings, which had slowed to a trickle before Von's death, soon spiked. He became such a fixture that the Tribune named him its 2014 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz. In 2015, Freeman linked up with Von's son, Chico — himself a volcanic tenorist — to release 'All in the Family' in 2015. At that point, nephew and uncle hadn't collaborated since they shared an out-there local bill in the 1970s, one Chico felt nervous even offering the older musician. His doubts were dispelled as soon as George began to play. 'He blew my mind. He came and he played just amazingly. He was just a total musician. That changed my mind about everything,' Chico told JazzTimes years afterward. Freeman released an album roughly once every two years after 'All in the Family.' His most recent, 'The Good Life' (2023), featured bassist Christian McBride and organist/trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco, heavyweights in the jazz world. This time, Freeman wasn't a sideman. They were the ones supporting him — a fact that tickled him endlessly. 'I wanted to play with (DeFrancesco) in the first place, and McBride had heard about me. They all knew me! That's what made it so great,' he said. Besides a show-stopping appearance at the 2023 Chicago Jazz Festival, Freeman mostly kept his recent gigs contained to an annual birthday party he hosted at the Green Mill, the city's historic jazz venue. The next one, celebrating his 98th, was scheduled for April 11 and 12, with Allemana, organist Pete Benson and drummer Charles Heath; it's been fashioned into a memorial concert in his absence. In his last conversation with the Tribune, Freeman echoed the sentiments he shared with DownBeat magazine in 1971, his first major print profile. 'With all this talk about musicians being brothers, there is too much competitiveness among them and they aren't cooperating enough. The way I see it, everybody can't be a leader, so you've got to get behind somebody,' Freeman told DownBeat. 'Why not help another musician to do his thing? You'll get your turn when the time comes.' Freeman is survived by nephews Chico and Mark Freeman and by his great-nieces and -nephews. He was preceded in death by brothers Eldridge 'Bruz' Freeman and Von Freeman. A service will be announced at a later date. Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer. Originally Published:
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Yahoo
WTTW documentaries highlight ‘people creating conditions for peace'
On the first day WTTW videographers filmed Damien Morris at work in Garfield Park, they responded to the scene of a shooting, a hospital where one of Morris' colleagues had a son being treated for a gunshot wound and an event for Morris' organization, Breakthrough Chicago. '(Director) Teresa (White) was like, 'Wow, that was an eventful first five hours,'' Morris said. 'And I was like, 'Well, welcome to my life.'' Morris is one of five subjects in WTTW's latest 'Firsthand' documentary series, an annual set of films and programming focused on different social issues. This year's five short films follow a range of interventions, from street outreach to a restorative justice court in North Lawndale to conflict mediation, all geared toward reducing interpersonal violence in Chicago. Executive producer Dan Protess said he'd wanted to showcase community violence interventions since he'd worked on a previous series about gun violence years ago. 'I wanted to show stories of people who were creating conditions for peace,' he said. Protess added that one of his goals with the series was to make a case that these interventions are 'a vital city service, the same way policing and firefighting and ambulances emergency responders are considered to be essential city services.' Protess also said he wanted to highlight how 'fragile' support can be for the organizations covered in the series. Morris' organization, the Garfield Park-based Breakthrough, has recently been in the news alongside other nonprofits who were concerned about what a potential federal funding freeze might mean for them. Violence intervention groups typically receive money from state, local and private philanthropic sources. Illinois' Reimagine Public Safety Act, which became law in 2021, sets aside roughly $240 million for violence prevention programs throughout the state. Civic leaders announced $100 million in funding for anti-violence work last year, and Gov. JB Pritzker has called for more consistent funding to these programs after years of instability. In the 2010s, CeaseFire Illinois, which later became part of CureViolence, was often forced to lay off its workers due to funding issues. A push to address spikes in firearm violence in 2016 and 2020 brought a new wave of public interest in peacekeeping in particular, which relies on the connections of former or still-involved gang members to snuff out conflicts and curb violence. Kathryn Bocanegra, a University of Illinois Chicago scholar of social work who will give a lecture in connection with the series, said the average Chicagoan 'probably has no clue what (peacekeeping) is.' But the documentary series, she said, would contribute to a broader public discussion of how to incorporate violence intervention into public safety. A significant amount of the work highlighted in the series hinges on person-to-person relationships. Morris is shown engaged in many of the relationships that power his work throughout his segment but also draws a line about the presence of a camera crew when he's shown pulling up to Mount Sinai Hospital to speak to a peacekeeper whose son had just been shot. 'Because this is a sensitive matter, I won't be able to film this part,' he says, sitting in a van outside the hospital. Morris later described that point in the film as 'a very vulnerable, intense moment' where the production had to defer to the situation. Cedric Hawkins, another subject of the series, who works with the nonprofit Chicago CRED, said it was challenging to have cameras present at critical response moments, like speaking to a group of boys and young men in North Lawndale whose friend had just been killed. He'd only gotten to know that group in the last year, he said, and had originally only planned to visit the shooting site with the camera crew. But they ran into some of the group out on the block and they became a part of the final documentary. 'I didn't even want to bother them,' he said. '(But) once you catch these youngsters, and you show them something different that can help them, then you're just a big homie in a different way.' The series premieres Monday.
