Search Chicago Jazz
Jazz Calendar
There are no shows posted for today. Please check back soon.
The 2010 Hyde Park Jazz Festival
The 2010 Hyde Park Jazz Festival
Date Posted: September 14 2010
Written By: Deborah Halpern
|
 Bookmark it!
|
In four short years, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival has transitioned from a great idea into a Chicago tradition. As the annual event is about to kick off in the tree-lined, historic Hyde Park neighborhood, on Saturday, September 25, it is good to remember that what has become an annual migration south to Hyde Park for jazz lovers across the Chicago metro area and beyond did not even exist four years ago.
Was it just luck? Was it brilliant, meticulous planning? Probably a little of both. Primarily, the success of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival is the result of creative thinking, a strong collaborative effort on the part of the neighborhood’s arts and cultural organizations, the dedicated work of hundreds of volunteers over the years, the partnership with the Hyde Park Jazz Society, the blind determination of festival committee members and the support of the University of Chicago. Add to the mix a thriving jazz loving audience in Chicago and the festival’s success becomes less of a surprise and more of a natural transition.
The idea for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival grew out of a brainstorming session of the leaders of Hyde Park’s arts and cultural organizations that now comprising HyPa (the Hyde Park Alliance for Arts & Culture). The question: How to introduce new audiences to the organizations on Chicago’s Culture Coast? And the answer was clear: Jazz.
Named for the founder of the Hyde Park Jazz Society, the main stage is the James W. Wagner Stage on the Midway Plaisance along 59th Street. The majority of the other performance venues bring jazz enthusiasts in the doors or to the courtyards of Hyde Park’s famous arts and cultural venues including the Smart Museum, Little Black Pearl, Hyde Park Art Center, the Oriental Institute, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, Experimental Station and International House.
In addition to thirteen hours of free jazz by some of Chicago’s greatest jazz musicians, the Festival offers an opportunity for audiences to experience and enjoy the cultural organizations hosting the programming. Over the years, the participating organizations have enjoyed welcoming back hundreds of new visitors who were first introduced to their organizations during the Jazz Festival.
The Jazz Festival producers, HyPa and the Hyde Park Jazz Society, have watched the Jazz Festival transition from an idea and 5,000 jazz fans in year one to over 20,000 jazz fans last year. Seventy-five percent of the people attending the festival come from Chicago with the remaining quarter coming from the suburbs and surrounding region. Last year a group of fans that came down from Madison for the Festival.
In the words of drummer Charles “Rick” Heath, “This festival stands out from any other festival in the country. I can’t think of any other festival that has as many performance stages as the HP Jazz Fest. All of the stages are professional and all of the performers are top notch.”
One jazz fan recently replied about whether they would be attending the fourth annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival: “Sure, our family goes every year. We never miss it.” And so a new jazz tradition is born.
CJM
Don't miss anymore Chicago Jazz Information.
Subscribe to Chicago Jazz magazine / Get A Free CD.
Subscribe to our Chicago Jazz weekly newsletter.
