Dee Alexander at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival

Join us at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival for an afternoon of great music. With nine venues and thirty-four acts over two days, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival features a variety of music that provides a more-than-worthy complement to the Chicago Jazz Festival. Yet this array of talent at a neighborhood festival is simply a continuation of the area’s long tradition of political and artistic expression. We'll take in three afternoon performances beginning with Two Brown Sisters from 3 - 4 p.m. at the Augustana Lutheran Church and conclude with a performance by Dee Alexander from 5:45 - 6:45 p.m. at the outdoor Wagner Stage, Midway Plaisance. We'll choose from several performance options from 4 to 5:30 p.m. when we meet.

Dee Alexander is regarded as one of the most talented jazz singers of Chicago and beyond. Heralded as “Chicagoan of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune in 2008, her 2009 album, “Wild Is the Wind,” was placed among the top ten albums of the new millennium by DownBeat Magazine. Alexander’s ability to not only sustain notes, but alter the pitch in mid breath - as well as project mood and feeling with each breath - makes her a must-see performer.

Maggie Brown is a multi-faceted singer and entertainer (and daughter of jazz great Ari Brown) who has been a stalwart in the Chicago jazz community for decades. In recent years she has been the featured vocalist for the sixty-piece Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra, but also performs with her own small groups. She has recorded with Abbey Lincoln, Jonathan Butler, Ramsey Lewis, and Stevie Wonder. For this performance she will be joined by her sister, Africa Pace Brown.

We will meet outside the Augusta Lutheran Church at 55th and Woodlawn at 2:30 p.m. (to the left of the entrance) and enter the venue ten minutes later for the 3 p.m. performance.

Admission is free, but a $10.00 donation is requested to sustain the festival into the future.

There is plenty of street parking in Hyde Park on weekends. Parking on either side of the Midway Plaisance will put your vehicle close to the Wagner Stage, our final performance location.