Concerts & Events

Throughout his career, Medina has worked with numerous top tier exponents of Latin music. He participated in the Grammy winning album "La Verdad/The Truth" (1987) by Eddie Palmieri. Jerry has worked regularly with stars such as Yomo Toro, Cheo Feliciano, Lucecita Benítez, José Feliciano, Ismael Miranda, Larry Harlow, Herp Albert, Tony Vega, Manny Manuel, Luis Enrique and as lead singer for Descarga Boricua.

Before his debut as a soloist with "Feelin Allright" in 1998 for the RMM label, Jerry Medina participated in the Fania stars tour. Through these events Jerry visited Spain, Italy, France, Colombia and the African continent along with the likes of Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Ela Fitzgerald, Horace Silver, Mel Lewis and Airto Moreira.

Building a bridge between Caribbean folklore and Latin jazz, in 2015 Medina produced the critically-acclaimed album titled "A Mi Manera", which included the talents of Giovanni Hidalgo, Paoli Mejías, Efraín Toro, Pablo Rosario, Luisito Marín, Prodigio Claudio, and Ricardo Pons.

Jerry Medina y La Banda will also perform on August 30 at 7:30 PM at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center. Free tickets at srbcc.org.

The Ruiz Belvis Collective

Co-directed by piano player Adrian Ruiz and percussionist Michael Rodríguez, The Ruiz Belvis Collective is an Afro-Latin Jazz performance ensemble born at Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Chicago's longest-standing Latinx cultural center.

The program incorporates young veterans of Ruiz Belvis' youth Afro-Caribbean Jazz and Afro-Latin Percussion advanced apprenticeships with guest appearances by the city's top local and touring Latin music talent. Through a dynamic performance schedule students engage in the business of musical performance, learning to leverage their talents and exposure. SRBCC's youth music programs have received recent recognition by the 2017 MacArthur International Connections Grant and the 2018 Arts and Culture Grant of The Field Foundation of Illinois.

World Music Wednesday – Extended Play is a series of free concerts curated by the Old Town School of Folk Music and funded by the Chicago Community Trust. Extended Play presents high calibre world music artists at three venues across the city; The Old Town School of Folk Music, the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, and the DuSable Museum of African American History. Artists are selected in close consultation with partner venues to ensure that they reflect the programming objectives and mission of all institutions. Artists will perform for three consecutive days in these venues in an effort to make the significant cultural programming at the Old Town School of Folk Music available to other institutions and communities on the South and West sides of Chicago.