Festival Recap
15,000 Flock to Hyde Park Jazz Festival
Jazz everywhere. Venues full to overflowing. Big tents full of happy people. Streets lined with festivalgoers. And rave reviews.
They came to Hyde Park by the thousands, from all over the city, state, and beyond. At least 15,000 people descended upon the neighborhood to attend the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.
“Where does jazz live in Chicago? On the streets of the South Side, for instance, which swelled with more than 15,000 listeners who traveled by foot and trolley among nearly a dozen sites during the second annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich. “From the intimate auditorium at the DuSable Museum of African American History to the idyllic courtyard of the Smart Museum of Art, the [Festival] treated jazz with the respect it deserves.”
Jazz on the Move
People moved on foot and by trolley to hear Reginald R. Robinson, Bethany Pickens, Corey Wilkes and Kahil El’Zabar, and Dee Alexander, among many other top names in the business.
They flocked to see 30 dynamic musical acts at the Checkerboard Lounge, International House, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, and others. Many Festival venues are members of the Hyde Park Cultural Alliance, which co-produced the event with the University of Chicago and the Hyde Park Jazz Society.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House couldn’t contain the crowd.
“There were people everywhere,” says Sheryl Papier, marketing director for Robie House. “There were about 500 people gathered around the site listening to the music. We did two shows to fit everyone inside.”
Celebrating Hyde Park Culture
The Jazz Festival celebrated and showcased Hyde Park’s many thriving cultural organizations. Besides hearing great music, audiences got a chance to learn about each venue’s organization’s work and space.
“We’ve reached hundreds of people who might otherwise never have engaged with our organization and given them an opportunity to find out what we do,” Papier says.
Tony Hirschel, the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum of Art, couldn’t have been happier.
“I’m delighted so many new people were exposed to the museum and what it has to offer,” he says. “That all these people now know where we are and have a little knowledge about what we do—and were reminded that admission is free—was a very big step towards making them members of our audience over the long term.”
Festival sponsors say that the annual event is good for neighborhood businesses as well. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” says Irene Sherr, of the Community Council. “That is to say, all of the venues benefit when 15,000 people have a good time in Hyde Park.”
They Loved It All
The festival’s executive music producer, Carolyn Albritton, marvels at the increase from 5,000 festivalgoers in 2007 to 15,000 this year.
“There were lines at the Checkerboard Lounge that went past the Dixie Kitchen restaurant in Harper Court,” she says. “Even though the venues all filled quickly and many people had to wait to get in, the weather was beautiful and they didn’t mind.”
The superb quality of musicianship was surely the biggest draw, she says. Another was the fact that Hyde Park has such a rich history and so many remarkable cultural institutions.
“Everything was close together. Audiences could go from one venue to another quickly,” Albritton says. “They were able to go into a historical location like the DuSable Museum, tour it, and hear wonderful music, or into the Hyde Park Art Center or Experimental Station. It was a chance to see the cultural venues for free and to visit the restaurants in the neighborhood.”
The performers got a great deal, too: a chance to showcase their work, play their music, and gain new fans.
“The people who attended loved it all. They gave rave reviews about what they saw and tried to make the most of each venue. It was just a fun day,” says Albritton. “It just goes to show, if you let people know what you have, they’ll come.”