10 jazz sets to see this month at Chicago’s free festivals, from up-and-comers to John Coltrane tributes
Chicago has had an especially big year for jazz, beginning when the city hosted the UNESCO International Jazz Day in April. But local fans of the genre know that September is the city’s true jazz month, when three free festivals unfold across town.
While Downtown’s city-run Chicago Jazz Festival has come and gone for the year, there is still plenty of world-class jazz performances on deck for this month.
This weekend, the 27th annual Englewood Jazz Festival, founded by the esteemed saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, will uplift up-and-coming musicians, including members of the longstanding training ensemble, the Young Masters. The event also will celebrate all-time greats like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, who were both born 100 years ago.
Then, later in September, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival will ring in its 20th year. With so much free music to be heard, we’ve rounded up 10 sets you won’t want to miss at these South Side festivals.
Englewood Jazz Festival
When: Sept. 17-19, with music starting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and noon on Saturday
Where: Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St.
The Julius Tucker Trio will kick off the festival inside the park’s cultural center. The pianist and composer has become a staple of Chicago’s local jazz scene. After beginning his classical training when he was just 7 years old, Tucker went on to study music at Northwestern University.
Dawkins, 72, said the Englewood Jazz Festival’s commitment to original compositions is part of what makes the festival unique. This year, that includes one of Dawkins’ own works, a tribute to the civil rights icon, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Also on Thursday night, the Live the Spirit Residency Expanded Ensemble, featuring Chicago jazz singer Dee Alexander, will perform Dawkins’ original composition, “Fannie Lou Hamer: No One Could Contain Her.” The work debuted in the spring during the International Jazz Day celebrations, but Dawkins said he is happy the major ode to the civil rights icon will get another performance in Englewood. It’s part of a series Dawkins is working on honoring women, including a forthcoming piece paying tribute to Ida B. Wells.
On Saturday, the Chicago-based Dakarai Barclay Quartet will play all original compositions honoring the lives of Miles Davis and John Coltrane — both of whom were born 100 years ago this year. Davis was born in Alton, along the Illinois-Missouri border. Dawkins said the commitment to original works, like in this set, is what sets this festival apart.
Chicago jazz singer Dee Alexander will perform at the Englewood festival on Thursday night. The three-day festival is free to attend in Hamilton Park.
Timothy Hiatt/For the Sun-Times
The odes to all-time greats will continue with The 2 Brown Sisters — Maggie & Africa Brown, who will pay tribute to their father, Oscar Brown Jr., the Chicago musician, playwright and activist was born 100 years ago next month.
The weekend will end with the New Continuum Ensemble led by trumpeter Marquis Hill and featuring saxophonist Braxton Cook. The group showcases the next generation of musicians who are shaping Chicago’s jazz scene, including Micah Collier and Macari Ramsey.
Hyde Park Jazz Festival
When: Sept. 26-27, with music starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday
Where: venues across the neighborhood, including the Smart Museum of Art, DuSable Black History Museum and Educational Center and Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
The esteemed Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis and his sextet return to the festival on Saturday afternoon on the Wagner Stage in Midway Plaisance Park. Twenty years ago, Davis played the first note in the first-ever Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Now, he returns with the likes of saxophonist and flutist Kevin King and pianist Leandro Lopez Varady.
Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis returns this year to the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Twenty years ago, David played the first note at the first Hyde Park festival.
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival 20th Anniversary Band will feature an esteemed group of Chicago-rooted artists: trumpeter Marquis Hill, drummer Makaya McCraven, bassist Junius Paul and vibraphonist Joel Ross. Together, they represent a generation of players who were up-and-coming when the festival began two decades ago and now have gone on to have successful careers.
Chicago cellist, composer and bandleader Tomeka Reid brings her work “In Tribute to Ellington” to the fest on Saturday afternoon. The MacArthur Genius Grant recipient debuted the work, inspired by Duke Ellington’s music, in 2024 at the Kennedy Center and has since performed it around the country.
Trumpeter Marquis Hill will perform at both the Englewood Jazz Festival and Hyde Park Jazz Fest this month.
Celebrations of Miles Davis and John Coltrane will continue with pianist Emmet Cohen’s tribute on Saturday at the Logan Center Performance Hall. To celebrate the centennial occasion, Cohen has formed a quintet and launched a year-long tour, which reimagines the work that redefined jazz history.
The festival will close Sunday with M.A.D.D. Vibes, a new project from Chicago vibraphonist and composer Thaddeus Tukes. The work was born out of Tukes’ love for tap dance and features dancers as full-fledged members of the band.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.