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May 21st 2012
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Chicago, Ill 60622
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Jazz and Blues Tours with Chicago Detours!
Jazz and Blues Tours with Chicago Detours!
Date Posted: April 18 2011
Written By: Chicago Jazz
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CHICAGO DETOURS LAUNCHING INNOVATIVE TOUR OF JAZZ AND BLUES
Unique angle on the cultural history of Chicago music
On June 11th, Chicago Detours will launch its new music tour by bus, entitled “Our Chicago Sound: Jazz, Blues & Beyond.” The two-and-a-half-hour tour, which begins and ends at Jazz Record Mart, explores the cultural history of various genres from jazz to blues and rock to house. Rather than focusing on visits to present-day nightclubs, this tour will delve into how people, politics, and culture have come together to make Chicago such fertile ground for musical innovation. With group size limited to 25, the tour explores various neighborhoods, with guests engaging with videos and music between up-close visits inside and around music landmarks. Reservations for tours are required.
Tour stops include a brief walk around Uptown, and a step inside a store that was a jazz club in the 1920s, and today still has the original stage and other relics from its past. Topics will delve into stories of the Great Migration, Maxwell Street market, the rift between jazz and blues communities, and the recording technique of the blues mecca of Chess Records. Music-making will be demonstrated with a surprise activity.
Video screens inside the bus will present historic photos and videos to bridge the gap of time. Guests will engage with images of musicians and other characters from history, as well as former recording studios, clubs and theaters. Many videos are graciously supplied by non-profit archive Mediaburn (www.mediaburn.org). And of course songs themselves with be presented, too.
Tours are curated with a journalistic approach, as Scotese and her team consult with local experts, such as former Blues Festival director Barry Dolins. “We curate our tours to include a wide variety of perspectives. In other words, we present quotes, documentary video clips and other media to show the shared experience of Chicago music, rather than just that of the guide.” For “Our Chicago Sound,” the company also produced short videos of personal accounts with people who have direct history in the community.
As a social venture, Chicago Detours guides do not take tips; rather they take donations for worthy causes, such as their educational initiatives to give tours to local schools free of charge.
For this tour, they have partnered with the Jazz Institute and Blues Camp to support their educational initiatives as well.
Jazz Record Mart serves as the meeting and end point for the tour (27 E. Illinois St.). Guests meet out front. Walking is no more than ˝ a mile, and the tour is not handicap accessible. It can be offered for private group tours. Reservations can be made by calling 312.350.1131 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 312.350.1131 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or reserving direct online at www.chicagodetours.com. Tour launches June 4th, and will run Saturdays through September 17th. Tours start at 10am and 1:15pm, and last 2.5 hours. Reservations are required. Adult tickets are $70; students/seniors $65; kids under 12 $50. All tours include an interactive dynamic, multimedia presentation, engaging commentary, and valuable extras.
Chicago Detours makes tours that are like mobile exhibits. Guests interact with each other, urban space, and historical media to delve into Chicago’s architecture, art, history, politics, entertainment, and city life. Tours bring people to explore stories and places that locals don’t even know about. Highly trained guides share forgotten stories from the past, and create an engaging dynamic to spark discussions and learning.
Since launching this past fall, Chicago Detours has received feedback from tour attendees that has been widely positive, with top ratings on both Yelp and TripAdvisor. One Facebook comment says, “Alternating between an artistic, a funny and a practical view of the city, Amanda showed us a Chicago that I never realized existed, despite living in the south loop and working in Chicago for so many years.” Cathy Domanico, the Director of Tourism of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau Director of Tourism, said, “Very informative and fun and I learned a lot.” New City Magazine journalist Kristine Sherred writes, "Guides encourage questions and conversation, fostering a collaborative educational environment unlike the talking head on run-of-the-mill tours."
Scotese has 8 years experience as a tour guide, and especially honed her skills while employed as a guide and guidebook researcher with Rick Steves, one of the nation’s most well-known travel authors and television personalities. She enriched her knowledge of architecture, urban studies, and art history through her M.A. in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Further information on Amanda Scotese and Chicago Detours is available on the website, www.chicagodetours.com.
Contact:
Amanda Scotese, Executive Director and Tour Curator
312.350.1131
amanda@chicagodetours.com
www.chicagodetours.com
www.facebook.com/chicagodetours
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