Ben Pedersen (tr). Nightshade, 10/23/25.

By Dominic Guanzon

Thursday, 10/23/25

PORTAGE PARK, THURSDAY, 10/23/25 – Dozens of jazz fans came out to “Jazz For Good” at Nightshade cocktail lounge, a fundraiser in support of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). The evening raised $1,002.43 in a combination of sales and donations, according to a Nighshade Instagram story.

ICIRR has been at the forefront of organizing resistance against this year’s surge in federal immigration raids in Chicago, providing a much-shared hotline for ICE sightings and resources for the undocumented.

Mary Halm (b). Nightshade, 10/23/25.

The Ben Pedersen Quintet provided music for the evening, with all band members, a cadre of local working musicians, donating their time.

“I think we all have seen the videos and read the stories,” said Pedersen (tr) after finishing a rendition of “Crazy Rhythm” by Caesar-Meyer-Khan. “It really means a lot that so many people have crowded Nightshade tonight to give money and resources where it needs to go.”

Nadav Simon (d). Nightshade, 10/23/25.

According to Nightshade co-owner Marvin Boeving, he has been working with Pedersen for the last “about three, four years” for jazz nights.

“We saw all that bad shit going down with ICE,” said Boeving, “we thought, how can we help? [Pedersen] approached me and was like, ‘hey you wanna do a fundraiser concert?’ And I of course immediately agreed.

*A student of Pedersen’s watches as he plays. Nightshade, 10/23/25.*

“It was a very short-term thing. Last week only, we started planning, and we pulled it off today.”

Nightshade opened in June of 2022, just seven months after Moonflower’s December 2021 opening upstairs.

“I’m privileged enough that it hasn’t hit myself, but it definitely has hit people that I deeply care about. It breaks my heart.”

According to Pedersen, Boeving gave all of his personal tips to the donation total.

From Mary Halm on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “O Morrow Não Tem Vez (Favela),” to Andy Schindler on Louis Armstrong’s “Someday You’ll Be Sorry,” the tunes were as busy as the kitchen was.

Towards the end of the evening, Pedersen invited one of his former students, themselves a young trombonist, up to play with the band. The music, and the message, appears to carry on.