Next Tuesday will be a tough night for Chicago singer-impresario Geraldine de Haas and her husband, bassist Eddie de Haas. But it should be quite gratifying, too. A large segment of Chicago's jazz community – top singers, pianists, saxophonists, you-name-it – will take the stage of the Jazz Showcase to bid farewell to two artists who have been central to jazz here for nearly half a century. It was Geraldine de Haas, after all, who led many like-minded spirits in creating the first Duke Ellington celebration concert in Grant Park, in 1974, just after the master's death. The event proved so successful that it became an annual soiree, paving the way for the emergence of the Chicago...
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