RECOMMENDED Organized by the Hyde Park Cultural Alliance, the University of Chicago and the Hyde Park Jazz Society and celebrating the rich music and culture of the Hyde Park neighborhood, the ambitious Hyde Park Jazz Festival is making its inaugural bow this year combining headliners, local arts organizations and local emerging artists for fifteen non-stop hours of free jazz and jazz-related programming, interviews, workshops and dance performances in a family-friendly festival environment across the Hyde Park area, including the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Oriental Institute, the Quadrangle Club, the Smart Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Checkerboard Lounge for Blues and Jazz and stages at the Midway, among others. (All of which may be accessed by free festival shuttles that will be running throughout the festival with free parking available throughout the University of Chicago campus and Midway, including the parking structure at 55th and Ellis.) Among those performing include trumpeter Orbert Davis, the African dance company Muntu, vocalist Dee Alexander, University of Chicago jazz ensemble director Mwata Bowden, HBO’s “Midnight Mac” musical director Reginald T. McCants, Charles “Rick” Heath from “The Color Purple,” Big Band-style sextet Bill McFarland and the Chicago Horns, saxophone masters Chicago Sax in the City, Brazilian-style duo Two For Brazil, West African-style rhythms by Tony “Toca” Carpenter, vocalist Maggie Brown, pianist Willie Pickens, drummer Derek Henderson and trumpeter Corey Wilkes. (Dennis Polkow) Saturday, September 29 in Hyde Park, call (773)834-4122 for info. 11am-2am.
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