Newcity

Edited by Scoop Jackson & Tara Betts

Editors’ Letter

We are looking at Chicago long after Jean Baptiste DuSable witnessed this land, long after the Great Migration fanned out from train stations to Chicago’s South and West Sides, and almost a century after Robert Johnson’s rendition of “Sweet Home Chicago” became a citywide anthem played on televised events to celebrate this city’s rich cultural and historic heritage, long after the 1919 Red Summer that set the uncomfortable stage for the city’s racial divide and dynamics that, to this day, still exist.

The Columbia Chronicle

By Ryan Rosenberger, Staff Reporter

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival organization has launched a new virtual livestream series, “Jazz Kitchen,” which explores the intersection of jazz music and food and how that relationship played a role historically and still manifests itself in every day life.

Chicago Reader

By Bill Meyer

When the Hyde Park Jazz Festival's executive and artistic director, Kate Dumbleton, spoke to the Reader in August about the fest's efforts to adapt to COVID-19, she sounded hopeful that some version of the event would take place during its traditional time slot on the last weekend of September. Given that Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events had already replaced an entire season of live outdoor programming with prerecorded video broadcasts—and that no one knew if, when, and how hard a second wave of COVID infections would hit the city—that hope seemed wildly optimistic. But the virus held off, and the festival did hold events both its usual days.

Hyde Park Herald

By Mrinalini Pandey, contributing writer

Over the weekend, Hyde Park residents and visitors welcomed the 14th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival with great fervor.

Unlike its conventional format, this year’s event took place as a mix of live-streamed concerts on Saturday evening, and pop-up and mobile staged performances throughout Sunday at various outdoor locations in the neighborhood.

Chicago Tribune

By Howard Reich

No, it wasn’t quite the same as spending a day running around Hyde Park catching jazz sets in concert halls, courtyards, churches and whatnot.

But the folks who stage the annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival weren’t going to let the pandemic derail the 14th annual event. So the two-day soirée opened Saturday with a series of stylistically wide-ranging shows livestreamed from the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts.

Block Club Chicago

By Maxwell Evans

HYDE PARK — The 14th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival kicks off this weekend with a mix of virtual concerts and small, in-person performances spread throughout the neighborhood.

Chicago Tribune

By Howard Reich

Normally at this time of year, music lovers would be getting ready to flock to dozens of performances – indoors and out – at the 14th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

Chicago Reader

By Bill Meyer

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, which in recent years has become a world-class event in its own right, hasn't been flat-out canceled, but COVID-19 and its accompanying economic punishment have forced its organizers to radically reimagine its programming. They've also had to adopt a white-knuckled, wait-and-see approach to deciding what they'll actually do on the ground—an enervating state of irresolution that will be familiar to the parents, teachers, and administrators who've just spent the summer wondering where and how the kids will get their schooling.

WTTW: Arts & Entertainment

By Grace Del Vecchio

Chicago residents strolled along tree-lined streets in the South Shore community Saturday to listen to short pop-up concerts as part of the third annual Back Alley Jazz. From noon to 5 p.m., eight performances took place in 30-minute increments in driveways, front lawns and other outdoor spaces.

Hyde Park Herald

By Marc Monaghan

Saxophonist Greg Ward and bass player Christian Dillingham perform a “jazz postcard” on Bynum Island in Washington Park, on Saturday afternoon.

Hyde Park Herald

By Aaron Gettinger, staff writer

Current plans call for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, last of the neighborhood's warm weather cultural events, to be the only one with in-person events. Alongside a big virtual concert on Sept. 26, artists are slated to perform at mobile stages across Hyde Park on Sept. 27.

Chicago Tribune

By Howard Reich

A few months ago, Kate Dumbleton had the 14th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival pretty much mapped out.

As always, the event would feature September performances in venues across the historic neighborhood, concerts in the University of Chicago’s Logan Center, commissioned work and more.