Photograph: Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune
So does Mike Reed ever sleep?
The local drummer/composer has already done a lot of cool stuff in his Chicago career: booking the Pitchfork Music Festival, helping program Millennium Park and the Umbrella Music Festival, running, the Sunday night jazz series at the Hungry Brain, and in his spare time playing drums in various jazz groups around town.
Now he will add to his repertoire the programming the performance lineup at Constellation, a new music/performance space housed in the former Viaduct Theatre.
The 7,000-square-foot Constellation, which will be the new home for Links Hall as of April 1, will include a 100-150 seat performance space, two studios, and a bar/cabaret. Reed’s new vision is like a second act for the long-time venue, which had a long history of incubating emerging arts companies. Additionally, the Constellation, which Reed says will house several experimental jazz groups, could fill a void for those jazz-lovers who have mourned the closing of several major venues (RIP the Velvet Lounge and HotHouse).
For those insatiable cool-hunters—i.e., those who now find Pitchfork too mainstream—the Constellation might be the answer to your prayers.