Northern Illinois Community Calendar

Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center presents jazz trumpeter and composer Marques Carroll on Thursday, Oct. 29. Carroll is dedicated to preserving the authentic culture of jazz and spreading his holistic love of music around the world. Having worked with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian McBride, Count Basie, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Mary Wilson, and Aretha Franklin, Marques uses this multi-genre vocabulary to break down barriers, writing evocative music that speaks directly to the soul. A storyteller at heart, Marques consciously challenges genre norms such as blues, funk, soul, neo-soul, and hip-hop by expanding, combining, and pushing into new places of expression and mastery.

Jazz in Progress joins us for an after-hours concert that will feature different styles of big band and modern jazz music in the library’s main lobby!

Jazz in Progress (JIP) organized in 2012 to encourage local musicians to play jazz in support of its mission of musical, charitable, and educational purposes to advance the appreciation, performance, and history of jazz music and its related genres. Its membership includes a variety of talented musicians from the DeKalb County area. The ensemble also honors the practice of inviting local high school and college jazz musicians to sit in with the band, giving young musicians an opportunity to gain more experience in playing jazz music.

JIP is an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that puts funds raised back into local community music programs. Past recipients of JIP donations include the DeKalb, Genoa-Kingston, Hinckley-Big Rock, Indian Creek and Sycamore music booster organizations, as well as St. Mary’s-DeKalb and the DeKalb County Community Foundation.

JIP has performed at benefit and fund raising events and venues around the area including the St. Mary’s Lancer Legacy Ball, Sycamore Natural History Museum’s Rockin’ for the Reptiles, Stage Coach Theatre, Sycamore Farmers Market, Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, Artigras, The House Café, and Oak Crest Senior Proms. The band also has performed with the Celebration Chorale and at many other community and charity events.

This concert is free and open to all. No registration is required. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. and music will begin at 6:30 p.m. This event is part of the after-hours concert series in partnership with the Friends of the Library and 94.9 WDKB.

For additional information, please contact Chelsea at chelsear@dkpl.org or at (815) 756-9568 ext. 1700.