By Jacky Runice
A solid 10 on the jazz-o-meter
The 2016 Hyde Park Jazz Festival offers two days of live jazz on 11 stages in and around Midway Plaisance, near the Museum of Science and Industry.
Read MoreBy Reader staff
From its start a decade ago, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival has offered a superb portrait of the Chicago jazz scene. But in recent years, under the direction of Kate Dumbleton, the weekend affair has become a magnet for global talent.
Read MoreArts Journal: Jazz Beyond Jazz
Pianist Randy Weston, a magisterial musician at age 90 inspired by jazz traditions and its African basics, and trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has devoted himself to incorporating the Middle East’s modal, microtonal maqam legacy into compositions for jazz improvisation by members of his Two Rivers Ensemble, were highlights of last weekend’s 10th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Both acts brought influences from afar back home.
Read MoreBy Howard Reich
The complete lineup for the 10th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival, running Sept. 24 and 25 across the South Side neighborhood, will feature Dana Hall discussing his 2015 work "The Hypocrisy of Justice"; Willie Pickens Quartet; Matt Ulery's Loom; Thaddeus Tukes/Isaiah Collier Duo; Roy McGrath/Bill Cessna Duo; Clark Sommers' Ba(SH); Lorin Cohen Group; Quentin Coaxum Quintet; Marvin Tate's Weight of Rage; Maggie Brown; Orbert Davis Sextet's "Tribute to Freddie Hubbard"; Douglas Ewart and Orbit; Chicago Jazz Orchestra; and Marquis Hill's Blacket, among others.
Read MoreBy Howard Reich
Ten years ago, a group of Hyde Park cultural activists led by James Wagner realized a dream long in the making: They created a jazz festival unlike any other that attracted throngs to the historic neighborhood.
Read MoreDownBeat
By Michael Jackson
Under the sharp curatorial ear of artistic director Kate Dumbleton, abetted by Hyde Park Jazz Society’s vivacious, indefatigable Judith Stein and a team of half a dozen effective women (plus nearly 300 volunteers), the ninth annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival proved once again to be a highlight in Chicago’s cultural calendar.
Read MoreBy Copy Chief
Attendees danced on the pavement of Midway Plaisance Sept. 27 as the Willie Pickens Quartet grooved through the jazz standard “Afro Blue” at the ninth annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival.
Pianist Pickens said little throughout the performance, but his excited energy had the audience clapping along and dancing in the street by the final number.
“I wanted [the audience] to take away that jazz is still alive, and jazz is music that can make you feel good,” Pickens said after hisband’s performance.
Read MoreBy Emma Broder
For the ninth year in a row, University of Chicago students and the greater South Side community had the opportunity to hear incredible local artists at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival last weekend.
Read MoreChicago Tribune
By Howard Reich
The most inspiring moment in last weekend's Hyde Park Jazz Festival occurred as the event was winding down.
Read MoreWHPK 88.5 FM Chicago
September 27, 2015
Tomeka Reid and her "Hear & Now" trio will perform live on WHPK 88.5 FM September 27th at 9AM. Howard Mandel, president of the "Jazz Journalists Association" will be the guest DJ. This will be an exciting program concurrent with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.
Read MoreBy Howard Reich
Chicago's best jazz festival energized a city neighborhood over the weekend, drawing large crowds to an ancestral home of the music: the South Side.
Read MoreChicago Reader
By Peter Margasak
The annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival takes another leap in quality this year, offering the strongest program of its nearly decade-long history.
Read MoreBy Howard Reich
The best jazz festivals offer more great performances than you could possibly attend in their entirety, presented in environments well-matched to the music at hand.
Read MoreChicago Artists Coalition
By Nuria Sheehan
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival began as an experiment. Nine years ago, some passionate jazz fans in the Hyde Park community created and rallied behind the idea of a jazz festival to be presented in different settings across the neighborhood.
Read MoreThere aren’t a lot of cells in jazz. But then again, there aren’t a lot of musicians like Tomeka Reid.
Read MoreHyde Park Herald
By Allison Matyus
The hype for the 9th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival is starting to settle in the community, but you haven’t seen anything yet.
Read MoreHyde Park Herald
By Sam Rappaport
The last weekend of September will see thousands of jazz fans flocking to Hyde Park for the ninth annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Chicago’s finest jazz musicians will decorate the stages of various Hyde Park venues over the course of the free, two-day event. Perhaps the most anticipated concert of the festival, however, comes from a musician who has been a staple of the Hyde Park community since 1958—Willie Pickens.
Read MoreWHPK 88.5 FM Chicago
September 14, 2015
Please tune into WHPK 88.5 FM Chicago this evening at 8 PM CST to hear jazz host John Litweiler conduct a live interview with Mr. Henry Threadgill.
Read MoreChicago Daily Herald
By Jacky Runice
The Hyde Park Jazz Fest features nearly 40 performances at 14 venues throughout the historic South Side neighborhood. Local artists Tomeka Reid and Mikel Patrick Avery have composed original pieces for the fest, and Avery will lead a full-scale parade down the Festival Midway. Ambrose Akinmusire's project, banyan, is a 60-minute composition with an original video installation. Other standout acts include Regina Carter, Xavier Davis, Henry Threadgill and David Virelles, among others.
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