One person was killed and five other people were injured by gunfire Tuesday across Chicago.

A 30-year-old man died after he was shot about 4:05 p.m. in the 11300 block of South Michigan Avenue in Roseland. The man was taken to Christ Medical Center, where he died about 4:45 p.m., according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.About four miles north in West Chatham, a 29-year-old man was critically wounded around 7:20 p.m. while in a car in the 8800 block of South Princeton Avenue, police said. He was struck in the face and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.A man was critically wounded on the West Side about half an hour earlier. The man, whose age is unknown, was in the 4000 block of West Madison Street when he was shot in the back, abdomen and arm about 6:50 p.m., police said. He was transported to Stroger Hospital.A man was wounded in a drive-by shooting Tuesday morning in Chicago Lawn on the South Side. The 21-year-old was walking in the 2400 block of West 71st Street when a passenger of a dark sedan opened gunfire about 10:15 a.m., police said. The man was taken to Christ Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the thigh.

At least two other people were wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago. Both people, a 51-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man, were hospitalized in fair condition, police said.

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CHICAGO — As Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was struggling through his debut as an NFL starter against the Browns last Sept. 26, his father, Pablo, went to a concessions stand in Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium.

A self-proclaimed “nervous wreck” during Justin’s games, Pablo has trouble sitting still while his son is playing, and he doesn’t wear a “Fields” jersey because he doesn’t want those conversations. But on this day, it was unavoidable as he stood in line.

“I guess Fields wasn’t ready,” a fan said to Pablo, unaware he was speaking to the QB’s father.

Pablo, a retired Atlanta police officer of 30 years, didn’t need confirmation things weren’t going well. Justin was sacked nine times in a 26-6 loss.

“When you’re in that storm, you hate it as a parent,” Pablo said. “You hate it for your kid, but I’ve always seen them coming out stronger on the other side.”

The storm raged throughout Fields’ rookie season. Out of 31 qualifiers, he ranked last in QBR at 26.4, and he was sacked 36 times in 11 games, the highest rate in the NFL. The Bears finished 6-11 and fired head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace.

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The Bears aren’t expected to improve much this season — their over-under is six wins — but those close to Fields are optimistic he will take the next step in his development. They’ve seen him persevere through struggles in high school and college, and they’ve seen the work he has put in this offseason.

For Fields, it’s about embracing the process of improving, instead of trying to forget what happened last season.

“When you’ve been doing something so long, you start to love it more and more,” Fields said. “And I love the failure that comes with it. I love everything that comes with it, because I know that at the end of the day, that as long as I give my best, and I know what I can do, I know that once we reach our full potential, what we’ll be able to do.”

It didn’t take long for the 23-year-old to clarify his remark.

“Yeah, we need to roll that back,” Fields said with a laugh. “I don’t love failing, but you just have to be able to know how to bounce back, know how to get back in that mindset and get back rolling.”

Jake Fromm, right, was a sophomore when Justin Fields arrived in Athens. Fromm helped lead Georgia to its first SEC title in 12 years as a freshman. Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

It hadn’t rained anywhere in Cobb County, located northwest of Atlanta, on Sept. 1, 2017. But on the day Fields’ Harrison High School team traveled to rival North Cobb, the skies opened up, and the storm seemed to hover over the field.

The slick conditions took a toll. With Harrison backed up in its own red zone, Fields fumbled on back-to-back possessions, both leading to North Cobb touchdowns.

Fields ended up throwing for two TDs and running for two more, but Harrison lost that night, and things got worse for Fields on Oct. 19 when he broke the index finger on his throwing hand during a nationally televised game. His senior season was over.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was in attendance the night Fields injured his finger, because Fields — the nation’s top recruit — had committed to play for the Bulldogs.

Fields’ college choice was a meaningful decision for the family. Justin’s sister, Jaiden, had committed to Georgia as a softball recruit two years earlier, before her freshman year at Harrison High.

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Jaiden said her mom, JoAnn, pictured the siblings having picnics in the campus courtyard while attending the same university, which was located less than two hours from their hometown of Kennesaw, Georgia.

But that dream assumed Justin would continue his football ascent. Fields played sporadically as a freshman, completing 27 passes for 328 yards and four TDs, but he was unable to unseat starting sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm, who helped Georgia to its first SEC title in 12 years as a freshman.

There was also an incident in which a Georgia baseball player allegedly shouted racist remarks at Fields during a football game and was subsequently dismissed from the team.

So after one season at Georgia, Fields decided to transfer to Ohio State. In the waiver application to gain immediate eligibility, Fields’ lawyer, Tom Mars, said the transfer had “nothing to do with racism.”

The timing of Fields’ move out of his Athens apartment turned what would have been a joyous occasion for the family into a bittersweet day for Pablo and JoAnn, who were moving Jaiden into her dorm room at Georgia that same day.

“My mom was there moving me in, and my dad was helping move him out,” Jaiden said. “She was taking stuff out of my dad’s truck to put in my room, and they were taking stuff out of his room to put back in the truck.”

Once he landed in Columbus, Fields never looked back.

Fields became the first QB in Ohio State history to lead the Buckeyes to back-to-back playoffs. Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

The Buckeyes were the top-ranked team in the country and hadn’t trailed by double digits all season until the Big Ten Championship Game on Dec. 8, 2019. Wisconsin led 21-7 at the half, and its pressure was getting to Fields, who was sacked three times while wearing a brace on his left knee to protect a sprained ligament.

But after going 7-of-14 passing in the first half, Fields completed 12 of 17 attempts in the second half and threw three touchdown passes to lead OSU to the College Football Playoff with a 34-21 victory.

Fields finished third in Heisman Trophy voting that season, and his leadership at OSU wasn’t confined to statistical achievements.

After the Big Ten announced it was canceling its 2020 football season amid pandemic concerns, Fields started a petition for the conference to reinstate the season and allow players the individual choice to opt out.

Fields chose to stay in Columbus and train. Others followed suit. The Big Ten ultimately reversed its decision and opted to play a shortened season.

“Even when we thought we weren’t going to have a season, he kept the spirit up and always kept us prepared to go,” said former Ohio State wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who’s currently with the New York Jets. “He made sure the receivers were getting their work in.

“When the season came around and we got to play, I felt like it came together really well because of those reasons.”

Fields’ on-field leadership was on display in 2020, from the time he ran down and blocked a defender to allow running back Trey Sermon a clear path toward the end zone against Michigan State, to his quick recovery from a blow to the ribs delivered by Clemson linebacker James Skalski in the 2021 Sugar Bowl.

After limping to the sideline to get evaluated by trainers, Fields returned and threw a touchdown on his first play back. Two of his best passes came later, when he connected with Chris Olave for a 56-yard touchdown before launching a 45-yard TD pass to Jameson Williams.

“It’s the way that he gets hurt, he goes to the sidelines, he gets checked out by the doctors and then he comes in immediately and throws a touchdown pass,” Ohio State quarterbacks’ coach Corey Dennis said, recalling what made the moment special. “That just speaks to his leadership, just the love of his teammates is that he was gonna come back in and he was gonna finish that drive.”

Fields’ six-touchdown performance in the national semifinal win over Clemson was the highlight of his junior year. He helped lead OSU to a 7-1 season, which ended with a 52-24 loss to Alabama in the CFP National Championship. Fields was the first quarterback to guide Ohio State to back-to-back playoff appearances.

In two seasons, Fields led the Buckeyes to a 20-2 record, finishing second all time in OSU history in touchdowns (63) and completion percentage (68.4), and 10th all time in yards (5,373). He finished seventh in Heisman voting in 2020.

Three months after that win over Clemson, the Bears traded up to draft him with the 11th overall pick in 2021.

Fields had the worst QBR of all qualifiers last season, but his work this offseason, and his history of perseverance, suggest he’s capable of turning things around. Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

The Bears’ lack of stability at quarterback has been a punchline for years, and it doesn’t help that they play in the same division as Green Bay, where Aaron Rodgers has been the starter since 2008. And he succeeded Brett Favre, who had been the starter for 16 years prior.

The Bears have had 16 starting quarterbacks in the 14 years since Rodgers took over. Rodgers joked last season he could name them all, but he ran out of time trying.

“I can’t wait to be the first one to change that,” Fields said of the Bears’ QB woes. “That’s my mindset. I’m excited for the challenge.”

To prepare, Fields worked with his personal quarterbacks coach, Quincy Avery, three days a week in Georgia during the offseason. Those 90-minute sessions focused on honing his footwork, pocket drills, rhythm throws and hitch throws.

But half of Avery’s job was making sure Fields didn’t wear himself out. The owner of QB Takeover even implemented a throw count.

“Justin’s not somebody who’s super patient in any way,” Avery said. “He wants to be the best immediately, and I respect that. I don’t try and slow him down at all from that process.”

Fields’ teammates have noticed a difference.

Fields was sacked nine times in his debut as a starter, but he said he embraces the process of improving, including the failures along the way. Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire

“I lined up in the wrong formation,” Bears wide receiver Byron Pringle said, recalling how he was held accountable by Fields during a practice. “But that’s what quarterbacks do. That’s leadership. That’s not him harping up on me, or nothing like that.”

Tight end Cole Kmet noticed how Fields no longer just repeats the playcalls he gets from the sideline, he tells his teammates what the plays are.

“There’s a difference in that,” Kmet said. “You just feel him in the huddle.”

On one play during Chicago’s preseason win over Kansas City, the quarterback vacated the pocket too quickly and slid for no gain. It was what happened afterward that convinced new Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy that Fields is growing into the role.

“He didn’t let the last play affect the next play, which is something that we’ve been working really hard on from spring,” Getsy said. “Whenever he threw an interception or something in the spring, the next play was bad, too.”

If preseason performances are any indication, Fields is ready for the regular season. He completed 14 of 16 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns — no interceptions — against the Browns in the Bears’ finale on Saturday. His quarterback rating was 146.9, just off the perfect score of 158.3.

Fields was ready that night in FirstEnergy Stadium, and now he’ll have a chance to prove he’s ready to meet perhaps his biggest challenge yet.

Contributing: ESPN Jets reporter Rich Cimini

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TORONTO – Two Cubs relievers made their major-league debuts in the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday, with quite different results.

Before the game, the Cubs selected right-handed reliever Jeremiah Estrada as their second substitute player in Toronto.

The Cubs had already put pitchers Justin Steele and Adrian Sampson on the restricted list due to Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements for entry. They added lefty reliever Brandon Little as a substitute player on Monday.

Little was the first to debut Tuesday. He replaced starter Marcus Stroman, who held the Blue Jays to one run in five innings. Little hit the first batter he faced and then slipped trying to field a swinging bunt from Matt Chapman. Then, he gave up a go-ahead three-run homer to Teoscar Hern?ndez. He left the game after throwing 2/3 of an inning.

“I think Brendon had some things speed up on him a little,” manager David Ross said. “… Settled down, was able to get two outs.”

Estrada entered in the eighth inning. He struck out two in a scoreless inning.

“Jeremiah did a nice job coming in, doing what he does,” Ross said. “He’s got a really good fastball. Threw the ball extremely well, got some swing-and-miss in there.”

Contreras leaves game

Cubs catcher Willson Contreras said he woke up with a tightness in his left ankle, and the pain “came out of nowhere.” He’d been dealing with a sore left ankle, and then foot, since the Field of Dreams game almost three weeks ago, but it had been feeling better.

In the fourth inning, he hobbled around the bases after hitting a solo home run to drive in the first run of the game. When he sat down in the dugout, Ross asked him if he wanted to come out. Contreras asked to keep catching at least until his spot in the batting order came up again.

“I wanted to stay in for Stroman,” Contreras said. “… That was my main focus, stay in the game for him and get him through the fifth inning.”

Alfonso Rivas pinch-hit for him in the sixth.

“I wanted to stay in the game,” Contreras said, “but at this point, I have to listen to my body and do what’s right for me and for the team.”

Ross said Contreras felt better after treatment, but the team would evaluate him the next day.

Morel snaps skid

Cubs rookie Christopher Morel snapped an 0-for-18 streak at the plate in a big way. After the Blue Jays tied up the game in the fifth inning, he gave the Cubs back the advantage in the top of the sixth with a leadoff homer.

Before that at-bat, Contreras had told him to just try to make contact, like he was playing pepper.

Morel, batting ninth in the order, went 2-for-4.

Davis returns to Triple-A

In outfield prospect Brennen Davis’ first game back with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, he went 1-for-3 with a home run. David (back surgery) played five rehab games with Single-A South Bend before rejoining the I-Cubs on Tuesday.

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Good things usually happen when the White Sox hit multiple home runs.

But not on Tuesday, when they fell 9-7 to the Royals for their fifth loss in a row and for the 10th time in 12 games, dropping the Sox (63-66) six games behind first-place Guardians in the AL Central. Even when they do something right lately, the Sox sink even lower.

Ranked 13th in the American League with 108 home runs, the Sox got a three-run homer from Gavin Sheets in the fifth, a two-run shot from Sheets in the ninth and a solo shot from Eloy Jimenez in the eighth but fell to 19-5 when they hit two homers or more. The Royals (53-77) hit four home runs.

Sheets’ blast against Brady Singer highlighted a four-run inning and turned a 5-0 deficit turned into a one-run game.

But bad things happen when the Sox outfield defense is exposed, as well. A half inning after his homer, Sheets attempted a diving catch of Michael Taylor’s bloop with two outs and the bases loaded after right-hander Jimmy Lambert replaced lefty Tanner Banks. The ball dropped for a two-run single, and the Sox’ one-run deficit turned into three.

Sheets and outfielder Andrew Vaughn, both converted first basemen playing positions that require covering ground, have done OK considering they were pressed into outfield action due to the Sox’ roster construction deficiencies. Over and again this season, balls have dropped for hits that would be caught by other teams’ outfields.

Per FanGraphs, Sheets (minus-8) and Vaughn (minus-6) rank last and next to last in defensive runs saved among AL outfielders.

Sheets, who made his 53rd start in right field, was batting .368/.367/.579 six doubles in August. The homers were his fourth and fifth of the month, and he has 18 RBI in August.

Giolito struggles

Lucas Giolito gave up five runs on two walks and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, allowing two home runs to Nick Pratto and one to Salvador Perez on an opposite field poke inside the right-field foul pole.

Giolito (5.27 ERA) was coming off a one-run performance over 6 1/3 innings in his last outing in Baltimore. His home ERA over his last nine starts is 9.00.

Taylor homered against reliever Joe Kelly.

Grandal retruns

Catcher Yasmani Grandal was with the team Tuesday and will be reinstated from the 10-day injured list Wednesday, the first day he is eligible.

Catcher Carlos Perez is expected to return to Triple-A Charlotte, where Grandal went 5-for- 11 (.455) with one home run in three games at his rehab assignment at Charlotte.

Robert still out

Luis Robert missed his fourth straight game with a sore wrist, leaving the Sox without Robert, Grandal, Yoan Moncada (hamstring) and Tim Anderson.

Robert’s “swing is a concern so he’s not starting,” La Russa said.

“When he can swing normally is when he’s going to be in there. He’s getting his strength back. Some of the swings he’s taking are looking more normal.”

This and that

Left-hander Aaron Bummer was sent to Charlotte for an injury rehab assignment. Bummer, has been on the 15-day injured list since June 9 with a strained left lat.

*Thursday’s game against the Royals at 1:10 p.m. is a YouTube exclusive national broadcast (no NBC Sports Chicago). Scott Braun and Yonder Alonso will be on the call.

*Former right-hander Bob Locker, who pitched for the Sox (1965-69) and Cubs (1973, 1975) during a 10-year career, died at 84. Locker owned 57-39 career record with a 2.75 ERA.

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TORONTO – Blue Jays fans’ warm reception for Marcus Stroman started as soon as the Cubs landed at the airport. Stroman said the customs agents told him they missed him.

Three years after he left, Stroman returned to the Rogers Centre mound for the first time Tuesday, in the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays. He allowed one run in five innings.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Stroman said Monday of being back in Toronto. “… I love everything about the city of Toronto. I love the country of Canada. So to get back here, around the culture, around the people, to be in Yorkville walking around this morning. … It’s all love here.”

The Blue Jays had drafted him out of Duke in 2012. He’d helped end a two-decades-long playoff drought. And he’d spent the first 5 1/2 seasons of his MLB career in Toronto before the Blue Jays traded him to the Mets in 2019.

He tweeted out thanks to the fanbase Monday afternoon, and the “welcome” responses poured in.

“That only makes me more excited because they know the type of energy that I go out there and play with each and every day,” Stroman said. “And they know how hard I work to perform for this organization.”

At the ballpark, fans called him over by name, and he signed autographs through the net separating the stands from the field.

One young fan burst into tears when Stroman walked over to greet him. He held a homemade poster board sign that declared Stroman was the reason he loved baseball. He offered the United Kingdom-based family tickets to the London Series between the Cubs and Cardinals next year.

“The thing that stood out to me was that, the love that they gave him,” Cubs manager David Ross said, “a guy that started here, pitched big games for them, came up here, came back from serious [ACL] injury really fast to help them chase a playoff berth and get into the postseason. … To see him get rewarded for that here I thought was really cool.”

In addition to contributing to back-to-back trips to the American League Championship Series, Stroman watched the core of the current Blue Jays team come together. He had a front-row seat to the beginnings of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s and Jordan Romano’s careers, to name a few.

“Such a young, unbelievable group of guys,” Stroman said. “And obviously we knew Vladdy was going to be the guy to kind of build around. And to see everybody else performing at a high rate, to see Romano in the closer role, those are all guys I was just training with, guys that are asking me how to get to the big leagues at some point.”

As of Tuesday, the Blue Jays were sitting in the third American League Wild Card spot.

“I’m hoping the Blue Jays figure it out and slide in the playoffs and do some really special things going forward, truly,” Stroman said. “If there’s one team I’m rooting for in the playoffs, it’s Toronto.”

At this point in the year, however, the rebuilding Cubs are playing to disrupt other teams’ playoff hopes. And Stroman did what he could to stand in the Blue Jays’ way.

After allowing two hits and issuing a walk in the first inning, Stroman retired 11 straight batters. Two of his former teammates had a hand in the Blue Jays’ only run against him. Guerrero Jr. hit a groundball single up the middle to drive in Danny Jansen in the fifth inning.

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There are many questions about whether the Bears have provided quarterback Justin Fields enough firepower in the passing attack, but he’s not the one asking those.

Fields gave a resounding endorsement of his passing targets after his three-touchdown game against the Browns in the preseason finale and said he had plenty of trust in them beyond mainstays Darnell Mooney and tight end Cole Kmet.

Whilethe prevailing opinion is that this is mostly a ragtag group of underdogs, that isn’t how their quarterback sees it, nor is it how they view themselves.

“We have a lot of guys who can do different things,” Mooney said after practice Tuesday. “We’re very strong. But we can’t just talk about it. We’ve gotta do it. We can say how good we are, and some people can say how bad we are, but we really don’t know until the season gets here.”

The evidence will be up for consideration starting Sept. 11 when the Bears host the 49ers. In the meantime, Fields seemed to get exactly what he wanted when they made their final cuts and handed him seven wide receivers.

More than half of them, by the way, missed practice with injuries: Byron Pringle, N’Keal Harry, Velus Jones and Tajae Sharpe. The Bears are hopeful Pringle will be back for Week 1, while Harry is likely to be out at least another month.

Nonetheless, when Fields was asked to name reliable targets, he mentioned Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis without hesitation. They had a combined 19 catches last season and were both available in free agency on one-year offers at about $1 million each, but they’re consistently where he needs them to be.

And they’re hungry as they play for theirfuturesin their mid-20s.

“I just had it in my mind that once God presented me with that opportunity, I was gonna be ready for it,” said Pettis, who stamped his preseason with three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown during Fields’ snaps against the Browns.

Mooney added, “I’ve asked him, ‘How haven’t you gotten paid yet?’ The way he is at practice and the way he makes plays, now he has an opportunity to do that. And he will do that.”

Pettis came up in a similar offense with the 49ers as a second-round pick out of Washington and had a promising rookie season of 27 catches, 467 yards and five touchdowns in 2018. He has yet to return to even that level of production in a career derailed by injuries and getting cut.

Now he’s healthy, comfortable in the scheme and highly motivated. Will that be enough?

“We know what people are saying outside the building, but we block that out,” Pettis said. “There’s a lot of good receivers in the room. Anyone on this team will tell you there’s a lot of receivers that can make plays. It’s fun.”

On paper, it looks like a step down from what Fields had during his dreadful rookie season. At least he had proven asset Allen Robinson, who left for the Rams on a big contract.

But on the field, this actually feels better to Fields. For the first time, the receivers are his guys. He has been working with them all offseason, as opposed to spending that time on second-string last season and waiting for his chance behind Andy Dalton.

“I definitely feel like I have a better connection with more guys on the team compared to last year,” Fields said.

He added, “We’ve had a lot of reps. We always get extra work in after practice… It’s just constantly building.”

This might not be his final flight crew, however. With every team cutting about three dozen players heading into the season, there is now a flood of potential replacements if general manager Ryan Poles isunsatisfied with thisgroup. But for now, the main person who needs to be comfortable with them — Fields — likes what he has.

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Dizzy Gillespie cut a regal figure striding through O’Hare: his black and red fez like a crown, his green raincoat draped over his shoulders like a cape.

It was 1988. Dizzy was coming in from Paris. My job was to meet him at the airport, fly down to Peoria together, interview the jazz legend and catch his performance that night. He didn’t bring anything so square as a change of clothes. Just an instrument case containing his famous angled horn. And a small satchel holding papers, vitamins and medicine for his diabetes.

If the name is unfamiliar — time effaces the greatest fame — Dizzy Gillespie was the archetypal jazzman. His personal look — sunglasses, soul patch, beret — became the cliche of a bee-bop hipster.

The musician had come quite a way — 4,300 miles, Paris to New York by supersonic Concorde, New York to Chicago by jet, now a prop plane to the city known as the place where anything daring won’t play. He was 71 years old. He’d been blowing his horn for half a century. Why go to all this trouble for another gig?

“I want to play all the time,” he replied. “You have trouble if you lay off. There’s an old saying among classical jazz guys: ‘If I don’t play one day, I know it. If I don’t play two days, my compatriots know it. If I don’t play three days, the whole world knows it.’ “

“You have trouble if you lay off.” Something to bear in mind as the Chicago Jazz Festival takes place this weekend at full strength for the first time in three years — last year was a one-night showcase. I imagine more than a few people have a little trouble with the notion of heading to downtown Chicago simply for great, free jazz. Perhaps out of practice by the COVID lull, perhaps given pause by violence that has spilled out of the areas of the city where Chicago has accustomed itself, shamefully, to allowing violence to perennially persist.

This fear isn’t so much reality-based — Chicago crime has been far worse — as sparked by the relentless city-shaming that passes for social commentary. Victims of bias tend to involuntarily absorb the values of their oppressors. To push back, consider the source. There has been much fluttering over Republican gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey repeatedly calling Chicago a “hellhole” — at this point it’s almost a tic. You’d think this wasn’t coming from the guy who views Donald Trump’s endorsement as something to be proud of. A yardstick that broken can’t be the measure of anything.

In a city like Chicago, the good is always wrapped up in the bad, and visa versa. It’s a total package, risk and reward. You can’t accept the dynamism of any city without the problems that come along.

How do you think Chicago got jazz in the first place? We might not be the birthplace, but we were the midwife who caught jazz emerging into the world and gave its bottom a good slap. Virulent racism in the South sent music fleeing to Chicago, carried in the hearts and fingers and lips of the people who created it. Jazz, like blues, came from Black America, and Black America came to Chicago because it offered freedom, relatively, or at least improved possibilities. A kinder, gentler racism.

Exactly 100 years ago this summer King Joe Oliver sent his famous telegram to his second horn, Louis Armstrong, to come to Chicago, where he could earn in a day what he got paid in a week in New Orleans.

Gillespie, Armstrong … another factor that might keep people away from the Jazz Fest is lack of big names. At the risk of projecting my own flaws upon the general population, I believe people attend concerts partly to notch stars on their belt. If Wynton Marsalis were playing at the Jazz Fest this year, I wouldn’t need to goad people downtown. Magnus Broo might be every bit the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was, or more, yet it somehow isn’t the same.

What I’ve found is that anybody good enough to get on the schedule puts on a great show. When my wife and I went in 2019, we did not go intending to see Joel Ross, “the most thrilling new vibraphonist in America.” But there he was, performing magic. Had he been the reincarnation of Milt Jackson, I would have gone intentionally and felt myself richly rewarded.

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