I began my day at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival last month on Saturday morning by walking onto the Midway while everyone is setting up. I’ve never been to the Jazz Fest before, and I’m inspired by the number of things to do and see. There is a food corridor with local restaurants loading trays and firing up grills. There are vendors, selling hats, signs, soaps – a great variety of gifts. On the far side, volunteers are setting up a kids’ tent with glitter and face-paint. As the festival begins, people arrive, in groups of two or three, slowly filling up seats in front of the main stage, with their lunches in their laps. As more and more excited jazz fans arrive, the excitement builds. I can’t wait for the music to start. Even the weather seems excited about the Fest. A rainy morning clears up, and by the time I’m seated it is a gorgeous, sunny late summer day.
First up is Bethany Pickens and her trio. They hop between sound checks onstage and socializing with festival-goers in the audience. Some friends come up to the musicians, and begin a conversation. The feeling of community is palpable. The Festival is a gathering of friends who are passionate about jazz, a place where jazz musicians and jazz lovers are both equally at home. Even I, a jazz neophyte, feel completely welcome, and chat to a few passionate patrons about Pickens and her music. Beside me, a father, his son, and their dog play together. On the other side of me, two older men, who take the CTA down from the North Side every year for the fest, discuss their favorite acts. Everyone is at home here, from children through college students to older Chicagoans who have gathered from around the city to celebrate jazz music.
Pickens soon gets onstage, and explains, off the bat, that she is a native Hyde Parker, and that she loves the way the Jazz Fest transforms her neighborhood every year. I live in Hyde Park as well, and take this moment to look around me. I have been to the Midway, Jazz Fest central, many times before. But it has never felt this fun, this exciting, this alive. The Festival does reinvigorate Hyde Park, and really celebrates what I love about the neighborhood I call home. The sun is shining, the park is gorgeous – this is Hyde Park at its best, and the Fest has reminded me of this. It feels like a celebration like never before. As people munch on snacks from local eateries I realize the Fest is not only a celebration of Jazz, but also a celebration of Hyde Park.
When Bethany Pickens begins to play, I have my first experience of live jazz. I am blown away. She is truly an amazing musician. I look around me – everyone is enthralled. There is a compelling beauty in watching people make music in real time. Their creative energy is raw and undeniable, and we all feel it. We can barely take our eyes from the stage. When I finally do look down, during a break in the songs, I see the Jazz Fest schedule which I had placed in my lap earlier. While she is playing, there are two other equally talented groups playing just blocks away. The scope of the Fest is amazing – nonstop jazz across Hyde Park for two days. As much as I’m enjoying Pickens, I realize I have to check out some of the festivals’ other venues.
I walk over to the Smart Museum, only five minutes away, to see Pat Mallinger and his quartet. The lobby of the museum is packed with jazz enthusiasts, and the location is amazing – there is a huge floor to ceiling mural, out of the museum’s collection, which serves as a backdrop. During a break between acts, patrons snack on delicious sandwiches made by the Medici Bakery, a local bakery and sandwich shop, sold by the Smart Museum cafe. Behind the cafe’s coffee bar, I see a friend of mine who baristas there. We begin to talk, and both realize that, as first-time Jazz Fest-goers, we’ve been having a great time. He’s loved working there on this day, surrounded by people enjoying and listening to and watching amazing artists play just feet in front of him.
Talking to my friend, and then watching Pat play, I realize that festival, and really jazz in general is all about friends and community and music. Mallinger’s quartet is a small community of friends working together to achieve something beautiful, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival is the result of a dedicated group of people including the organizers, hundreds of volunteers and the sponsors and funders working together to achieve something beautiful, and the jazz fans are is all there together listening and experiencing something beautiful. Thanks to HyPA (Hyde Park Alliance for Arts and Culture) and the Hyde Park Jazz Society for making this possible. It is the simple enjoyment of sharing a wonderful time with people you care about that makes the Jazz Fest great. I will definitely be back next year, September 22nd and 23rd, and I hope to see you there!
However, DO NOT wait until next year to come back to Hyde Park. We have more arts and cultural organizations in this neighborhood than any other neighborhood in Chicago! Visitors come from all over the world to see the Museum of Science + Industry, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, and the Oriental Institute’s Museum. The Court Theatre’s production of the Iliad opens on November 10 and the Hyde Park Art Center invites everyone to Mischief Night on October 29.
