With support from UChicago, Hyde Park Jazz Festival has thrived, fostered local pride, and brought together diverse audiences
By The University of Chicago, Civic Engagement
09/15/2021
Now in its 15th year, the free, community-led festival is drawing acclaimed national and local artists
Buoyed by the popularity of small jazz performances in Hyde Park and by the South Side’s rich jazz heritage, representatives from cultural institutions in the community came up with a simple idea 15 years ago that they thought might achieve several worthy goals. The concept: staging a neighborhood jazz festival.
It worked, and continues to do so, for reasons based in the festival’s unique construction, robust support from the University of Chicago and extensive volunteer network.
“The university was absolutely fundamental to our doing this,” recalled longtime Hyde Park resident Judith Stein, (AB 1962, AM 1964) who became co-founder of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and serves on its board. “Without it, this couldn’t have happened.”
The 15th annual festival, set for Sept. 25th and 26th, will be presented almost entirely at outdoor venues and is expected to reflect the event’s growing popularity. Attendance in each of the last few years—except for a 2020 version scaled back to accommodate COVID-19 safety measures—drew 15,000 to 20,000 people. Between 2,000 and 5,000 attended the inaugural fest in 2007.
This year’s slightly condensed format will feature 30 concerts performed in six diverse venues across Hyde Park. Festival attendees can catch Regina Carter, Junius Paul, and Tomeka Reid, for example, on the Midway Plaisance, and Thaddeus Tukes with Ashley Jackson in the Smart Museum Courtyard. The Mai Sugimoto Trio will play at the Augustana Church parking lot and the Jeremiah Collier Quartet is performing on the north terrace of the DuSable Museum. Two performances—Makaya McCraven and Ensemble Dal Niente & Ken Vandermark—are indoors, at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.