Experience live in concert, Orbert Davis’ Emmy Award-winning score to DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis - a critically acclaimed documentary that first aired on WTTW in 2010.

Through the voices of its leading citizens, scholars, artists, politicians, and business leaders, DuSable to Obama explore the history of Chicago’s black community from 1779 to the present day. Moments of triumph and challenge are told, as the unsung heroism of everyday people is celebrated.

Composed by Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Co-Founder and Artistic Director Orbert Davis, the film’s acclaimed score evokes particular periods in Chicago’s history: the ragtime rhythms of the early 20th century; the big-band swing of the 1930s and ‘40s; the modal jazz experiments of the civil rights era, and more.

If there is a central message to both the film and the score, it’s that the history of Chicago and of black Chicago are intertwined - one does not exist without the other.

Witness the history come to life this Black History Month.

Guest Artists

Maggie Brown

Sekou Conde