For press inquires, please contact Kate Dumbleton at kate@hydeparkjazzfestival.org.
Photo By Michael Jackson
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, one of the most astutely curated and organized arts events on the Chicago cultural calendar, reached its 18th year the last weekend in September. Except for one brief shower, the rain in the forecast stayed away, and though the Hyde Park Herald had just published a story on the financial headwinds faced by the festival—even suggesting that this could be its final year—neither that news nor the thick gray clouds could dampen the mood. The fest’s usual broadly diverse audience—one of the best features of this south-side jewel—showed up and remained attentive and engaged for all the music on the program, no matter where it landed on the Venn diagram of “challenging,” “educational,” and “fun.”
By Hannah Edgar
Photo By Chris Sweda
Every great music festival has a few of those moments.
If you’re a music lover, you know them well. You desperately want to catch two — maybe even three or four — spectacular billings at the same time, on different stages. But since humans haven’t yet cracked on-the-spot mitosis, one has to make tough decisions about whom to catch, when, and for how long.
By Bill Meyer
Photo By Michael Wilson
The programming for this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival once again defies the implicit parochialism of the festival’s name: this is a weekend of music that any major city on Earth would be proud to call its own. The two-day fest balances accessible local acts that go well with picnicking on the Midway Plaisance with representatives of Chicago’s cutting-edge improvised-music community, then tops off the bill with excellent out-of-town performers.
Hyde Park Herald
By Marc C. Monaghan
Photo By Marc C. Monaghan
As DJ Duane Powell spun his mix of house, bossa nova, and afro beats on Saturday evening, spectators rose out of their chairs and danced onto the lawn of Kenwood Gardens. He was closing out the latest Artist Corps show, a free summer concert series by the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (HPJF).
Chicago Reader
By Michael Jackson
Photo By Michael Jackson
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, one of the most astutely curated and organized arts events on the Chicago cultural calendar, reached its 18th year the last weekend in September. Except for one brief shower, the rain in the forecast stayed away, and though the Hyde Park Herald had just published a story on the financial headwinds faced by the festival—even suggesting that this could be its final year—neither that news nor the thick gray clouds could dampen the mood. The fest’s usual broadly diverse audience—one of the best features of this south-side jewel—showed up and remained attentive and engaged for all the music on the program, no matter where it landed on the Venn diagram of “challenging,” “educational,” and “fun.”