Featuring Niki Haris The CJO heats up the yuletide season with the annual Home for the Holidays concerts, this season featuring vocalist Niki Haris, daughter of soul-jazz piano great, Gene Harris. While Niki excels at jazz, blues and gospel, and is in high demand at jazz clubs and festivals, it was on the international pop music scene where she first became known. Niki performed alongside mega pop diva, Madonna, on the “Who’s That Girl,” “Blond Ambition,” and “The Girlie Show”…

Featuring Benny Benack III & Lena Seikaly The CJO provides the romantic soundtrack to the Valentine’s Day weekend with Unforgettable: Love Songs of Nat King Cole & Others, celebrating the centenary of jazz legend Nat King Cole, and featuring two fresh-faced rising stars on the jazz scene, trumpeter-vocalist Benny Benack III, and vocalist Lena Seikaly, an audience favorite at last summer’s JazZoo performances. Trumpeter/vocalist Benny Benack III is equally at home performing jazz and pop, and equally at home as both…

Featuring Omar Coleman and Joel Frahm March madness kicks off with the CJO getting down and dirty in blues country with Nothing But the Blues, featuring windy city blues vocalist and harmonicist Omar Coleman and saxophonist Joel Frahm. Omar Coleman’s performances are rooted in the blues, spiked with R&B urgency, and resonant with deep-soul passion. He has appeared on jazz and blues festivals internationally and been embraced by such estimable blues legends as Ruth Brown, Sean Carney, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy,…