Jazz Great To Give Free Performance

Thelma Sardin |

Chicago native Earl Lavon Freeman Sr. will be playing a free show at University of Chicagos (U of C) Mandel Hall on Thursday, Feb. 24. Those interested in registering for the complimentary tickets should log on to http://rosenberger.uchicago.edu/event_registration.shtml. Doors are scheduled to open at 7 p.m. and the concert starts at 8p.m.

The tenor saxophonist will be performing with the Von Freeman Quartet. Freeman will also have a discussion about his life, career and music with Chicago Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich.

Freeman, who rarely gives interviews, is renowned as a major force in jazz, helping to shape the craft for more than six decades, according to the U of C website.

For generations, musicians from around the world have trekked to Chicago for a chance to play with the citys most revered living jazz artist, Reich wrote recently in the Chicago Tribune.

In June of last year, the U of C bestowed Freeman the Rosenberger Medal, an honor established in 1917 to recognize achievement through research, in authorship, in invention, for discovery, for unusual public service or for anything deemed to be of great benefit to humanity.

Freeman is also the father of Chico Freeman, a modern jazz tenor saxophonist and trumpeter. The 87 year old Freeman attended DuSable High School and according to his website, at sixteen, played tenor in Horace Henderson's big band for a year.

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