The 20th Season of free concerts in Ravenswood Manor Park kicks off on Friday evening, June 13 with the cool jazz of Diane Delin and her band. A combination of refined virtuosity with a fervid touch, critics have remarked: “…her playing has a toughness and stringency to go with its elegance and verve,” “…she…can light a real fire under both a band and an audience,” and “She’s really a fine player with exquisite taste.”
Opening for Diane is the jazz guitar of Greg Pasenko and his band playing tasteful liks in a jazzy-motif.
The evening is sponsored by State Senate President John Cullerton.
Diane Delin is a Chicago-based touring jazz violinist and composer whose music is receiving great attention. The Downbeat/Story Critics poll voted her a Rising Star in August of 2005, and the Chicago Sun-Times remarks: “…her playing has a toughness and stringency to go with its elegance and verve.” Neil Tesser, jazz radio host of “Listen Here” and author of the Playboy Guide to jazz writes that she “…can light a real fire under both a band and an audience,” while Boston’s jazz writer and radio host Fred Bouchard states, “She’s really a fine player with exquisite taste.” Her wide range of performances include touring with the Frank Sinatra Orchestra and performing for President Clinton. Delin has five solo albums in the Blujazz label. Her latest release is a seasonal jazz cd, Offerings for a Peaceable Season. Her latest project is Octagon, her jazz quartet with a string quartet. http://dianedelin.com/
Greg Pasenko is the founder and president of alternative jazz record label Blujazz US/Europe, co-owner of the French production company Plus Loin, creator of the short lived but critically acclaimed Chicago jazz spot, Club Blujazz, and co-founder of the NFP Creative Arts Exchange, as well as a dynamic vocalist and master guitarist. He has played and led bands in the jazz, blues, and R&B scene throughout the world and lived and led bands in KC, LA, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, and Chicago with his groups headlining or sharing the bill with jazz artists like Ramsey Lewis, Eddy Jefferson, Maynard Ferguson, blues artists like Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, comedians such as Bob Hope and Henny Youngman, and Maury Amsterdam, and rock groups like Rush, Mountain, Greg Allman, and Blue Oyster Cult.
