DownBeat Magazine: Hyde Park Jazz Festival

Allen, Taborn To Perform at Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival

DownBeat

September 26, 2014

Saxophonist JD Allen and pianist/keyboardist Craig Taborn are among the high-profile artists who will perform in Chicago this weekend at the 8th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

The free, two-day event will bring more than 30 bands to over a dozen stages throughout Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood Sept. 27–28. Alongside live musical performances by local, national and international jazz artists, the festival also features an outdoor dance floor, artisan vendors and, for the second year, a community-wide oral histories project where audience members can share their jazz experiences.

Co-produced with the Hyde Park Jazz Society, the festival grows more ambitious each year, earning recognition as a major jazz presenter in Chicago.

JD Allen has consistently attracted listeners since his 1999 debut album In Search Of (Red). This year Allen released Bloom (Savant), his sixth album in as many years. He will perform with his quartet, which includes pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Jonathan Barber. Allen’s concert will take place on Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. in the Logan Center Performance Hall.

Taborn is currently riding a wave of critical acclaim for his 2013 CD Chants (ECM), recorded with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver. His solo performance at the festival will take place at 11 p.m. on Sept. 27 in the Rockefeller Chapel.

Other headlining artists include the Dee Alexander Quartet featuring Oliver Lake, Etienne Charles & Creole Soul, the Art Hoyle Quintet, Dana Hall’s Black Ark Movement, Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, Tomeka Reid’s Hear in Now and the Houston Person Quartet.

Vocalist Alexander joins forces with Lake, a composer, saxophonist, flutist and bandleader as well as an accomplished poet, painter and performance artist. Dee and Oliver will be accompanied by keyboardist Miguel De La Cerna, bassist Junius Paul and drummer Yussef Ernie Adams.

Saturday performances (on Sept. 27) take place from 1 p.m. to midnight in multiple venues throughout Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, including two outdoor stages at the Midway Plaisance, two indoor stages at the Logan Center, Smart Museum, Little Black Pearl, Kenwood Academy Auditorium, Hyde Park Bank, International House, Oriental Institute, Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House, Rockefeller Chapel, Hyde Park Union Church and Hyde Park Art Center.

Sunday concerts (on Sept. 28) will be staged outdoors from 1–8 p.m. at the Midway Plaisance.

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival remains free to the public through the support of the University of Chicago, corporate sponsors and individual donors. A $5 donation per person is suggested to help sustain the festival, which aims to continue its forward momentum by building year-round programming in the coming year.