The Hyde Park Jazz Festival defied the pandemic with ingenious safety accommodations in 2020, presenting 18 brief pop-up concerts in parks, pedways, and sidewalks between 40th and 61st Streets, all announced at the last minute to minimize crowding. Last year the festival strived for a return to normalcy and almost got there, booking a slightly […]
Tag: Dee Alexander
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The Hyde Park Jazz Festival connects the south side to the wider world of jazz
Hard times will bring out anyone’s true colors, and the Hyde Park Jazz Festival certainly showed what it was made of when COVID-19 brought live music to a halt in 2020. Its organizers emulated the music that the festival supports, improvising ways to support local jazz. First, they arranged the Jazz Postcards series, small-scale outdoor […]
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Siul Reynoso of Los Gold Fires drops a supremely summery new single as Gabacho
Chicago Latine indie band Los Gold Fires have been quiet the past couple years, but guitarist Siul Reynoso has focused instead on a warmhearted, psych-tinged solo project called Gabacho. Reynoso has released an EP and a few songs under that name, and last week he dropped the third Gabacho single of the year. The luxuriant […]
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Back Alley Jazz renews a south-side tradition
In 2018, Back Alley Jazz, an offshoot of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, thrummed the heartstrings of nostalgic south-siders when it resuscitated the popular neighborhood-alley jams that took place in the community from the mid-1960s into the ’70s. Since then, this riff on tradition has become a tradition itself, turning unassuming corridors and street corners […]
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The Chicago Soul Jazz Collective refreshes the sounds of the city’s postbop era
Since 2018, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective has made waves in town by resurrecting the stylish grooves of the postbop era, which began in the late 1950s—nationally, the sound was shaped by the likes of the Jazz Crusaders, Cannonball Adderley, and Jimmy Smith, and in Chicago the Rush Street club scene was at its height. […]
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Monique Golding, vocalist for Mosaic Soul and the Black Monument Ensemble
“A music community is a group of individuals that create music because they love doing it, and I think that’s the most important thing for me.”
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The Hyde Park Jazz Festival takes it to the streets
With short sets from small groups in unexpected spots, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival creates a communal experience that’s pandemic safe.
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Chicago’s September jazz festivals cope with COVID
The city is replacing the Chicago Jazz Festival with a slimmed-down online event, while the smaller, nimbler Hyde Park Jazz Festival plans to try pop-up in-person shows.
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Is your lovin’ worth two transfers?
What our listings coordinator is musing about this week
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Rapper-producer Montana Macks drops a collection of soulful instrumentals
Montana Macks drops a collection of soulful instrumentals, Quiet Pterodactyl releases an all-star compilation to benefit Chicago music venues, and more.
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Bill MacKay and Katinka Kleijn document their dynamic duo with an album
Bill MacKay and Katinka Kleijn finally document their dynamic duo with an album, friends band together to help Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal with medical bills, and more.
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Curator Adia Sykes on a voice that takes you back to the golden age of soul
Current musical obsessions of ESS codirector Olivia Junell, curator Adia Sykes, and Reader music editor Philip Montoro
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Photos: The Hyde Park Jazz Festival
The south side’s own world-class jazz fest played host to dozens of shows and more than a hundred musicians.
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The jazz doesn’t stop when the park goes dark
This year’s Jazz Festival aftershows include Mako Sica with Hamid Drake, Dee Alexander performing Nina Simone, and the traditional engagements by Ira Sullivan and Edward “Kidd” Jordan.
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Your comprehensive guide to the 37th annual Chicago Jazz Festival
Previews of every act in Millennium Park and beyond, including Fred Hersch in his overdue festival debut and AACM cofounder Muhal Richard Abrams leading a historic reunion of the Experimental Band