Ari Brown, Joshua Abrams, and Mike Reed carry the torch of exemplary afterfest jazz 

The Chicago Jazz Festival doesn’t end when Millennium Park goes quiet. Clubs around the city put on special afterfest shows, some of them more exciting than the main-stage sets. This trio—tenor saxophonist and pianist Ari Brown, bassist Joshua Abrams, and drummer Mike Reed—continues a tradition that originated at the Velvet Lounge, the club owned by tenor giant Fred Anderson. The Velvet hosted afterfest jam sessions that included members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and out-of-town guests such as Kidd Jordan. After Anderson died in 2010 and the Velvet Lounge shut down, Constellation (owned by Reed) picked up the torch. From year to year, the afterfest programming at Constellation has varied in personnel and practices, and this trio is bound to stir