the 2024 Hyde park jazz festival benefit & concert

june 27, 2024

The 18th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival Benefit and Concert will be on Thursday, June 27, 2024 at The Promontory. We hope to have a packed house to kick off the 2024 Festival season and honor two extraordinary contributors to Chicago jazz and culture on the South Side, Carolyn Albritton and Jennifer Johnson Washington. The annual benefit helps keep the Festival free for everyone, and the generosity and commitment of our jazz-loving community are essential to the Festival's continued growth and success each year. We are so grateful for your support.

Schedule:

6:00pm-8:30pm: Reception and Honoree Celebration

7:30pm-8:30pm: Performance by the Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets

Honoring Carolyn Albritton and Jennifer Johnson Washington

Catered by: Bumbu Roux

Hosted Beer and Wine Bar

The Promontory - 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W, Chicago, IL 60615

Please scroll down for information on the performance and honorees.

Reserve a Table or Purchase Single Tickets:

$2,800 for a table for 6

$1,700 for a table for 4

$850 for a table for 2

$250 each for individual seats

If you wish to purchase a table or single tickets by credit card or PayPal, please fill in the amount for your table reservation or individual ticket(s) using the “other” selection on the PayPal page linked below. We will confirm your purchase and reserve your table. Thank you!

To purchase a table or make a donation by check:

Please make checks out to Hyde Park Jazz Festival and mail to:

Kate Dumbleton

Executive Director: HPJF

1723 W. Erie Street #4

Chicago, IL 60622

Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets

Derrick Gardner

Jazz trumpeter, Derrick Gardner, inspired by the finest hard-blowing funky bop bands of the 1960’s, is working to extend that great tradition as a composer, arranger, performer, leader and educator.
With extraordinary, creative natural talent, Derrick quickly made his mark upon arriving on the New York jazz scene in 1991. There he began a top-flight career that has taken him around the world performing internationally with the Count Basie Orchestra, (1991-present), Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Band, Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Swiss tenor player Roman Schwaller’s European Sextet. Among his performance locales are Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Thailand as well as many premiere venues in the United States. Over the last 18 years Derrick has worked with a tremendous litany of artists that include late Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Rufus Reid and Clark Terry just to name a few.

Mr. Gardner formed his own sextet, The Jazz Prophets, in 1991; it continues to be the primary vehicle of his distinctive, hard-driving music. The band’s three-man horn line, consisting of himself, tenor sax player Rob Dixon and Derrick’s brother, trombonist Vincent Gardner of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, has been together since the beginning. Derrick’s recording by The Jazz Prophets, A Ride to the Other Side, marked his Owl Studios debut in the spring of 2008. Like Slim Goodie (his highly regarded first recording as a leader on his own Impact Jazz imprint in 2005) it boils with the long-standing collective’s sheer passion for the soulful, funky jazz sound for which Cannonball Adderly and Horace Silver built solid foundations with their 1950’s and 60’s ensembles. The Prophets take that traditional straight ahead sound into new, invigorating territory.

Derrick Gardner & the Jazz Prophets’ second release on Owl Studios, Echoes of Ethnicity, was heralded with rave reviews and received the honor of being awarded “Best Jazz Album of the Year” by the Independent Music Awards. Echoes of Ethnicity is a solid, dynamic collection of excellence that highlights the deep talent and professional sound being produced by this hard-driving group.

In addition to his own releases, Derrick has performed on multiple recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra (including Grammy-winning The Count Basie Orchestra Live at Manchester Craftman’s Guild), the New York Voices in 1997 and four sessions with Harry Connick Jr. including 2007’s Hurricane Katrina inspired Oh, My Nola. In addition to recording and touring with the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band (an affiliation that continues as his schedule permits) Derrick was the feature trumpet soloist in the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not, for which Connick wrote the music and lyrics. As a sideman, Derrick has been on numerous recordings by arranging mentor and close friend Frank Foster, Carlos Garnett, Stefon Harris, Roman Schwaller and Liz Wright, among others.

2024 HPJF HONOREES

Carolyn Albritton

Developing her chops as part of Playboy Enterprises and then Talent Coordinator for The Cotton Club in the South Loop, a one-time top entertainment destination in Chicago, Carolyn Albritton has been an integral part of Chicago’s dynamic entertainment and music scene for decades. Carolyn’s vision for The Cotton Club was “a high-class club with top-name artists. . . a jazz show lounge with a disco” that also included “a weekly comedy clinic.” Booking and getting to know such luminaries as Shirley Horn, Morgana King, and Stanley Turrentine at The Cotton Club, Carolyn also met the comedian Bernie Mac, subsequently becoming his manager. Always looking for young music talent and enjoying her role as guide and mentor, Carolyn has encouraged and championed such rising stars as trumpeter Corey Wilkes, saxophonist Isaiah Collier, and drummer Jeremiah Collier—all when they were still in high school. 

Hired by the Hyde Park Jazz Society as a music coordinator in 2006, Carolyn was a major part of the team that finally brought jazz back to the Hyde Park community. Jim Wagner invited Carolyn to join him and Judith Stein for the initial conversations with the University of Chicago and the Hyde Park Cultural Alliance to create the inaugural Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2007. Then, becoming the music manager for the fledgling festival, it was Carolyn to whom everyone turned for professional guidance—to answer the “how to,” “where,” and “how do we" questions. In the early years of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, she helped to recreate the Open Mic experience she had initiated years earlier at The Cotton Club. 

As the influence and prestige of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival was growing, so was that of the Hyde Park Jazz Society. Despite early venue problems for the Society, Carolyn created relationships with local Hyde Park restaurants to expand performance space for the musicians. Her outreach has continued to this day as Carolyn, despite a debilitating stroke suffered in 2017, continues under her own name to book jazz musicians into her wildly successful Hyde Park Summer First Friday Courtyard series, originally held at the 55th Street Shopping Center, currently scheduled in Harper Courtyard, and already underway for Summer 2024.

Jennifer Johnson Washington

Jennifer Johnson Washington brings over 30 years of dedicated public service experience to her role as First Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). DCASE supports artists and cultural organizations, invests in the creative economy, and expands access and participation in the arts throughout Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. As a collaborative cultural presenter, arts funder, and advocate for creative workers, our programs and events serve Chicagoans and visitors of all ages and backgrounds, downtown and in diverse communities across our city — to strengthen and celebrate Chicago.

With a wealth of expertise in program development, strategic planning, and staff management, Jennifer plays a pivotal role in coordinating and directing various programs and operations within DCASE. In her current capacity, Jennifer serves as a key liaison to the Mayor’s Office and Aldermanic Offices, advocating for the department’s initiatives and priorities. Her responsibilities span across Executive Administration, Finance and Administration, Operations, Cultural Grants and Resources, Marketing and Development, and the Chicago Film Office, where her leadership ensures the successful execution of diverse cultural programs and events throughout the city.

Jennifer’s tenure with DCASE, previously the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, has been marked by several notable roles, including Director of Special Events, overseeing the event permitting and operations teams, Director of Programming for Festivals and Music, managing large-scale festival programming and production, and Director of the Chicago Jazz Festival, where she led the curation and production of the acclaimed 4-day festival for two decades.

Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management and Marketing from Mundelein College (now Loyola University Chicago) and has completed the City of Chicago’s Intergovernmental Executive Development Program, further enhancing her leadership skills and knowledge in public administration.

A lifelong resident of Chicago, Jennifer resides in the Oakland neighborhood with her husband, John. They are proud parents of twin daughters, Jada and Jenna, and remain actively engaged in their community.