Artifacts Trio

Cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and drummer Mike Reed are torchbearers of Chicago’s innovative jazz scene, as well as the most prominent members and educators of the third generation of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), a historically important Chicago arts organization. The trio served on the organization’s executive board from 2009-2011. Their music both touches upon and advances the organization’s motto, “Ancient to the Future”, and celebrates African-American culture while reaching across genres and integrating new ideas into the legacy of jazz, experimentalism, and composition.

Over the past decade, cellist Tomeka Reid has become an integral component of her city’s jazz and improvised-music communities, working regularly with Joshua Abrams and Matana Roberts. Reid currently plays in several high-profile groups, including collaborations with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, the AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble, and has written music for a Millennium Park concert series. Nicole Mitchell is a flutist, composer, bandleader and educator, who has repeatedly been awarded by DownBeat Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association as “Top Flutist of the Year”. Drummer/composer Mike Reed has also extended his work into many creative territories. In addition to drumming in a rotating cast jazz and improvised groups, he’s a founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, and a director of the acclaimed performing arts venue, Constellation.