MENTOR TO 20,000 MUSICIANS SALUTED Tribute to Illustrious Career of Captain Walter Dyett and the Musicians He Trained

For History’s Sake Productions and the Chicago African American Fire Fighters Museum presents “The Great Migration: A Centennial Tribute to the Musicians of Captain Walter Dyett,” a musical tribute to his musicians as well one of our nation’s greatest musical icons, Captain Walter Henri Dyett, on Saturday, July 23, 2016, in Chicago at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. A VIP reception will be held prior to the concert from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will be hosted by Chicago media luminary, Richard Steele. For tickets and additional information go to the event website: forhistoryssake.com.

A violinist and musical director, Captain Dyett, during his reign at Wendell Phillips and DuSable High Schools in Chicago, trained more than 20,000 musicians, many of whom became well-known musical giants in their own right, including Nat King Cole, Eddie Harris, Dorothy Donegan, Gene Ammons, Walter Perkins and Dinah Washington, to name a few. Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton often went to the DuSable High School to recruit band members right out of Captain Dyett’s classroom.

The Centennial Tribute to Captain Dyett highlights the Second Great Migration movement (1940 – 1970), which occurred after the Great Depression, at the end of which more than 80 percent of Blacks in the United States lived in urban cities, a movement that brought at least five million people to the north and western states. During this period, Chicago night clubs were enthralled with Black jazz musicians. And, no other town or city had the talents or the spirit to generate jazz like Chicago!

Featured performers for the Centennial Tribute to Captain Dyett include Grammy Award winning harmonica virtuoso, Sugar Blue; piano prodigy, Aki Antonia; bassist extraordinaire, Tracey Anita Baker; Ernie “Lady Sax” Shelby; award-winning drummer/percussionist, Taylor Moore and singer/songwriter/trumpeter, T. L. Williams. Partial proceeds from this event will go to the new Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. An open enrollment, neighborhood school that is arts focused with a technology lab and training center, Dyett High School will be the only open enrollment art school on the South Side of Chicago and will open in September 2016 with 150 freshmen. The school will offer a wide variety of visual, performing and media arts programs for students to explore. All donations are tax deductible courtesy of The Chicago African American Firefighters Museum, a 501c3

In honor of the city of Chicago’s Great Migration Centennial Celebration, For History’s Sake Productions, an historical event planning company that revisits African-American 19th and early 20th Century history with a special emphasis on the arts, and The Chicago African American Firefighters Museum, a new museum that will celebrate and honor the contributions of black firefighters are partnering to celebrate the legacy and cultural contributions of Chicago’s African-American community during the Great Migration. # # #

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