This week, the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater comes to life as Dr. Taylor and the trio host Chicago-born multi-reed artist, composer, and arranger Chico Freeman. With his own firmly established reputation on tenor sax, Freeman has long since stepped out of the shadow of his father, legendary tenor man Von Freeman. The ensemble opens with the upbeat composition "Evolution," then breaks for an exchange between Chico and Dr. Taylor about musical beginnings.

Freeman reveals that his musical career began typically, with piano lessons as a child. Then one day he and his brother Everett stumbled onto dusty horn instruments buried among his fathers' things in the basement, and a world beyond the keyboard opened wide. Freeman speaks of his father's early advice that it "was easy to copy, but it's much more difficult to be original." Von Freeman urged his son be original above all else.

When questioned by an audience member, the composer freely admits why he has settled on the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument. "If I was gonna play the trumpet I was gonna sound like Miles Davis," he explained to the audience. "Hence I would violate the first rule my father told me." More importantly, he says he's found his voice in the saxophone.

That becomes abundantly clear to the crowd at Terrace Theater as Freeman and Dr. Taylor's trio perform his somber composition "To Hear A Teardrop In The Rain." He tells his audience that the song was written for "that special person that in the midst of all these millions of people is like the teardrop in the rain." His warm and vibrant voice pours through his tenor saxophone and fills the theater.

Chico goes on to explain that the Freeman family boasts several musicians in addition to he and his father. Uncles George and Bruce play the guitar and drums, respectively and he credits his Uncle George for getting him his first jazz gig. Freeman says that as a student at Northwestern University, he spent weekends in his Dad's jam sessions at Chicago club Betty Lou's with the likes of saxophonist Clifford Jordan and pianist Kenny Barron. He also became a part of the legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

This free-jazz organization, Chico explains, was a consortium of artists given the freedom to," find some new avenues of expression to work in the clubs." Dr. Taylor points out that there isn't really a place for young musicians to work freely in that manner today. It was an opportunity for younger artists to work with jazz greats of "various experiences" who "were really pushing the envelope."

Freeman and the trio close the evening with a Sonny Rollins piece, Oleo. This energetic tune is based on the harmonic change of Gershwin's "I've Got Rhythm." Freeman's luminous rendition showcases his bold harmonic style. Though it is much more difficult, Freeman is staying true to his father's advice.