Post by Steve Foster

CHICAGO TRIBUNE With little or no safety net, jazz musicians watch their gigs disappear as coronavirus spreads Howard Reich Mar 18, 2020 | 9:10 AM No one will escape the coronavirus pandemic’s effects, but jazz musicians appear especially vulnerable to its economic impact. For even before Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered restaurants, bars and concert halls closed, jazz artists in Chicago and across the country were seeing their gigs canceled, their tours dropped, their livelihoods vanish. “My entire spring is shot,” said Orrin Evans, a top jazz pianist based in Philadelphia, before his first set Saturday night at the Green Mill Jazz Club. “Tonight is probably the last day I’ll do a gig” for a while, added Evans, an otherwise busily touring musician who swings through Chicago once or twice a year to play the Mill. “I don’t know if there’s any way to plan for this. … I’ve never seen anything like this. The only thing this reminds me of was 9/11,” added Evans, referring to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “But that didn’t make people not come out. People were sad. “Now fear is taking over. And it’s a fear that we all should be conscious of, but it still is a fear.” Chicago Tribune Media Group #HowardReich