Artists at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival offer a range of approaches to the genre, including the sonic explorations of bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding and the traditional strains of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. There’s a bit of big-band action, as well as reverential references to the music’s development in Chicago in the form of appearances by locals such as saxophonists Ernest Dawkins and Ari Brown. Before Ruffins’s headlining set on Saturday evening, a relentlessly creative troupe led by 84-year-old saxophonist Gary Bartz plays the main stage. Ntu Troop’s lineup includes trumpeter Theo Croker and drummer Kassa Overall, both born decades after the bandleader began his career, and though Bartz and his ensemble aren’t billed among this year’s headliners, they certainly could be.

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