Downtown St. Charles is trading its usual Fox River quiet for saxophone riffs and brass sections this weekend, as the 15th annual St. Charles Jazz Weekend kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday, Sept. 13, spreading more than 50 live performances across 29 venues in the historic riverside downtown.
The four-day run, as reported by Shaw Local, threads jazz sets through breweries, coffee shops, a historic theater, a church and a hotel dining room, turning the whole downtown into a rotating stage. Frank Catalano, described as a three-time Grammy winner, is among the lineup with three separate performances, opening Thursday at The Filling Station Pub & Grill before late-night sets Friday and Saturday at The House Pub, according to a Facebook post from the saxophonist, who has been a recurring festival draw for years.
Public Radio WDCB 90.9 FM is serving as an official media sponsor again this year and is hosting the festival’s official opening night party Thursday, featuring the Andy Schlinder Trio at Brother Chimp Brewing, per a WDCB Facebook announcement. The College of DuPage-based station bills itself as Chicagoland’s primary public jazz outlet, giving the weekend regional radio reach beyond the Fox Valley.
A New Outdoor Beer Garden Anchors Saturday
The festival’s centerpiece outdoor stage, the 1st Street Plaza, hosts the weekend’s headline attraction: Jazz on Tap, a Saturday-only beverage area running from noon to 6 p.m. that lets guests grab a beer or cocktail from one of five surrounding businesses — Alter Brewing + Kitchen, La Mesa Modern Mexican, McNally’s Irish Pub & Kitchen, La Za’za’ Trattoria and Gia Mia — while listening to live music, per the same Shaw Local report. That plaza itself is the product of a multi-million dollar city expansion that permanently converted part of 1st Street into a pedestrian plaza, with the City of St. Charles investing more than $4 million to enhance downtown walkable space before the project fully opened in 2024, according to an earlier Shaw Local report…