Music lovers have a real treat waiting for them at Navy Pier. After passing under the LSD viaduct and veering a few yards south, you’ll find a little paradise reserved for the celebration of the performing arts. Dance and theater swing in the mix as well as music. The park, whose formal name is the Polk Bros. Performance Lawn, sits serenely apart from the maddening crowd and even has free movies playing Monday nights throughout the summer.
One stage stands on the park’s eastern border and the other smaller stage sits off on the western end of the thirteen-acre knoll. The Lake Stage decorates its back with Navy Pier and the lake itself. The City Stage uses Chicago’s dazzling skyline for its flashy back wall.
Saturday night was the christening of the Lake Stage as a setting for music. Almost diminutive, the state of the art performance stage has been placed at the very eastern tip of the hill as it dips toward the lake. Leisure craft routinely cruise to within feet of the performers.
Jazz was on the menu and it was hot, sassy and slick. Billed as a tribute to Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne, the music had a heady Chicago flavor thanks to the soulful voices of Felicia Fields and E. Faye Butler. Each possesses powerhouse pipes inflected with that special brand of Chicago bred funk. All of the standards they so brilliantly sang sparkled with the sheen of their unique style. Accompanied by trumpeter Victor Garcia, the 90-minute show flew by far too soon.
The quality of both the sound and the sight lines? Exceptional. A mobile comfort station sitting discreetly on the park’s periphery brought yet another level of class and consideration to the venue.
Sunday, the 16th, the same stage played host to the last stop of the Chicago Latin Jazz Festival and featured the Chicago Latin Jazz Collaborative’s own tribute to Dizzy Gillespie.
