Grand Hotel’s Labor Day Jazz Weekend Offers Plenty of Variety

Ramsey Lewis at the piano. (Photograph by Marit Johnson, Grand Hotel Photography)

Grand Hotel Music Director Alex Graham summed up a weekend of jazz. The weather was great, he said, and the music was really good.

There was plenty of variety, and each of the headliners added something new to the Labor Day Weekend Jazz Concert, held from Friday through Sunday at Grand Hotel.

Eartha Kitt came out Sunday afternoon in the Tea Garden with a cabaret act, and the crowd loved her.

“Her band is really amazing,” Mr. Graham said. “They’re like a Broadway hit orchestra. The show was extremely tight and well put-together.”

Chuck Mangione Saturday night in the Theatre. (Photograph by Rebecca Quirke, Grand Hotel Photography)

Ramsey Lewis, back for a repeat festival performance, played Saturday afternoon.

“I think what is amazing about Ramsey Lewis,” Mr. Graham said, “with just a piano-bass-drums trio, no vocals, no horns, nothing like that, that they’re able to do a big stage like that, and really draw an audience in with just that.”

In the evenings, Chuck Mangione, Judy Roberts, and Claudia Schmidt entertained in the Theatre or the Jockey Club or both.

Eartha Kitt performs in the Tea Garden Sunday. (Photograph by Carin Quirke, Grand Hotel Photography)

Ms. Schmidt also opened for Ramsey Lewis Saturday afternoon.

“She added an interesting flavor to the Jazz Festival,” said Mr. Graham, “with that kind of stripped down trio; just her, a guitar, and bass, and she was definitely funny.

Judy Roberts, he said, “is a really talented person, singer, and piano player, and her husband, Greg Fishman, is a pretty good saxophone player. She sat in with us Friday night in the Theatre and we had a good time. And then on Saturday night, I was able to get the guys over there and sit in with her and her band, and it was really a lot of fun. We really got it going.”

A waiter watches from the Grand Hotel dining room as the Choir Academy of Chicago Charter School Treble Choir performs the Sunday Gospel program on the porch.

People really like the jam sessions, he said, because of the energy transmitted when musicians who have never played together merge their talents.

Sunday’s Gospel Program featured the Choir Academy of Chicago, 44 students assembled at the end of the Grand Hotel porch, singing to a packed crowd during a special performance.

Judy Roberts (left) and Claudia Schmidt jam at the Jockey Club Saturday night. (Photograph by Zdravka Primova, Grand Hotel Photography)

Attendees at the Jazz Festival also raised $13,142,81 for disaster relief in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The money, which has been sent to the Red Cross in Washington, D.C. for its Disaster Relief Fund, included a $5,000 matching contribution by Grand Hotel. Mr. Graham’s latest CD, “The Good Life,” was also offered as an incentive to contributors. He said the hotel gave away 73 of them.