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Guitarist Mike Allemana doesn’t hide his affection for Chicago jazz history. In fact, he’s been vested in seeing that it gets all of the support it needs. For years he was the working guitarist in most of the groups led by the great tenor saxophonist Von Freeman. He recently put together a quartet to feature the playing of Von’s guitar-playing brother George, who’s 86, a musician long in the shadows of his sibling and one who’s had a pretty low profile in recent years. George will play a short set dedicating a stage at the upcoming Chicago Jazz Festival to his brother, but listeners have a chance to really soak in his sounds during the final two Thursday evenings of a monthly residency of his band with Allemana at Constellation, which also features Pete Benson (of Sabertooth) on Hammond B-3 and Mike Schlick on drums. There’s no cover for the shows.
I haven’t had a chance to catch the Allemana-Freeman Quartet yet, but I’ve heard great things about the group and I certainly intend to stop by next week. Below is a video clip from earlier in August of the group playing “Happy Fingers.” The video is pretty dark, but it’s plenty effective in transmitting the vibe of the music.
