(Photo credit Patrick L. Pyszka, City of Chicago)

The Chicago Jazz Festival is back this weekend, starting Thursday, August 28 through Sunday, August 31. The free festival, centered around Millennium Park, will carry the sound of horns and drums for four straight days, before spilling out from Pritzker Pavilion into the rest of downtown. City officials bill it as one of summer’s marquee events, but for plenty of Chicagoans it’s just part of the rhythm of August, something that ties the neighborhoods to the lakefront. The lineup covers both the giants and the homegrown. Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra close out Friday. Grammy winner Dee Dee Bridgewater takes the stage Saturday. Chicago’s own Makaya McCraven, a drummer who bends jazz into hip-hop and improvisation,

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