First Monday Jazz featuring Coco Elysses

Launched in 2013, First Monday Jazz is a monthly ode to the deep cultural history of the Arts Block and Washington Park. With a musical legacy that can be traced to the early 1940s, the Arts Block transforms as an impressive roster of Chicago-based musicians take over the Green Line Performing Arts Center stage. September's First Monday Jazz featured artist is Coco Elysses.

Called a renaissance woman by many, Coco Elysses is a producer, conductor, composer, beat maker, musician, actress, voice-over artist, screenwriter, doula and poet. She has performed internationally in numerous festivals including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, The Havana Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, Made in Chicago Jazz Festival in Poznan, Poland and the Insolent Noise Festival in Pisa, Italy. Coco serves as Chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Inc. (AACM) and is also a featured voice in the book, Black Women and Music: More than The Blues. She has won the ALTA Award and Jeff Award for Best Original Music in a Play, and was a featured musician on the critically acclaimed FOX TV drama Empire. Some of her discography includes The Best of the Miyumi Project, Skylanding - The Music of Yoko Ono, Nicole Mitchell’s Africa Rising, and Resurrection Suite with Ben LaMar Gay & Carlos Pride.