Mike Reed poses in Constellation, a club he opened in 2013 on Western Avenue south of Belmont Avenue.Photo: Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune

It’s only fitting that Chicago—a city that saved free jazz from near extinction in the 1960s—is leading a resurgence in improvised music. The nucleus? Roscoe Village’s Constellation, a no-frills space where you can catch provocative jazz as it bakes, with musicians workshopping with each other as much as performing, favoring product over posture and incubating some of the nation’s most daring sounds.