Chicago musician David Boykin will hold the Free Jazz Jam Session with the Microcosmic Sound Orchestra every Sunday through September at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park. Boykin is currently an artist-in-residence with Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture.
What can people expect with your Free Jazz Jam Sessions?
A musical expression of the divine creative force of the universe transmitted by some of the finest musicians incarnate.
Who's playing with you every Sunday?
Alex Wing on guitar, clarinet and organ. Eliel Sherman Storey on saxophones. Dan Godston on trumpet and small percussion.
Will it be a different experience every time?
Yes. The music is all improvised all of the time.
What is Sonic Healing Ministries? And how does that relate to the Free Jazz Jam Session?
Sonic Healing Ministries is an organization dedicated to the evolution of the human spirit through creative music. We believe that vibration, and thus sound, is at the core of all creation and that creative music is simultaneously an expression of the originative source and a pathway back to this source. Microcosmic Sound Orchestra, which is the group that hosts the session every Sunday at the Arts Incubator, is a performance ensemble spawned by the Sonic Healing Ministries’ efforts.
How does Arts + Public Life and its Arts Incubator factor in?
The main goal of my residency is to grow Sonic Healing Ministries. I want to grow its membership base. This includes performing musicians, audience members and other supporters. Another goal of the Sonic Healing Ministries is to broaden awareness of creative music through exposing more people to this particular style of jazz. The residency provides a perfect opportunity for us to achieve this, as there is no other representation of this style of music in the Washington Park community. The last initiative involves research and study of the effects of sound upon music performers and listeners that we may better create music that leaves performers and listeners in a greater state of wellness after a musical event. The residency with Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture makes all of this possible by providing a home base of operations in a community that is currently void of this specific type of music programming. University of Chicago resources will aid in our research and audience development efforts.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
