Sept. 15--Everyone knows about the troubles in Englewood, where crime runs high and jobs are scarce.
But there's another, more hopeful story in that South Side neighborhood, and it owes to the unflagging efforts of an admired Chicago jazz musician who has spent his life in and around that part of town.
In 2000, saxophonist-composer-bandleader Ernest Dawkins created the Englewood Jazz Festival, and this weekend it will swing into its 16th edition, featuring musicians famous and perhaps soon-to-be. Englewood's fortunes may vary from year to year, but the festival continues to gather momentum and credibility, its lineup remarkable for an event with a budget of under $20,000.
This year, formidable Chicago artists such as singer Tammy McCann and trumpeter Corey Wilkes will share the marquee with New Orleans saxophonist Kidd Jordan and former Chicago guitarist Jeff Parker, who now lives in Los Angeles. As always, the festival will emphasize new sounds, including world-premiere compositions by Dawkins and pianist Adegoke Steve Colson written in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
To hear great jazz artists playing before enthusiastic listeners each year in Hamilton Park, on West 72nd Street, is to realize how much Dawkins does for his community and for jazz in Chicago.
But why? Why does a first-rate improviser who already plays widely across Chicago and around the world spend so much of his time and effort producing a neighborhood jazz festival?
"Because I'm about building institutions," says Dawkins, "and we need more cultural institutions in the black community."
Dawkins calls the institution he has created the Live the Spirited Residency, a non-profit organization that grew out of a three-year grant he received in 2000 from the New York-based Meet the Composer arts organization. When the money ran out, Dawkins easily could have moved on to other projects. Instead, he dug into his own pocket to keep the Englewood Jazz Festival afloat, eventually gathering support from Chicago's philanthropic community.
Has Dawkins' effort been worth it? The answer is obvious when you peruse the honor roll of alumni of the Englewood Jazz Festival and other Live the Spirit Residency programs. Trumpeter Marquis Hill, who last year won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, early on played in Dawkins' Live the Spirit Residency Big Band. Eminent flutist Nicole Mitchell and saxophonist David Boykin shared the stage with the band's young musicians back in 2002, helping Dawkins inspire a new generation. Other once-nascent players who came through the ensemble include trumpeter Maurice Brown, who now tours the globe with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and leads his own ensembles; saxophonist Greg Ward, currently a rising figure in New York who led a bold reinvention of Charles Mingus' "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" last month in Millennium Park; and the aforementioned trumpeter Wilkes, who's perpetually on the road in a variety of bands.
In effect, the Live the Spirit Residency and its most prominent program -- the Englewood Jazz Festival -- has helped cultivate jazz talent, each artist pursuing singular directions.
Dawkins is quick to point out, however, that his festival alone hasn't nurtured these great talents.
"I've been one of the entities," says Dawkins, citing the AACM and other organizations. "As they say, it takes a village."
But the Englewood Jazz Festival has been an increasingly important part of that village, and prominent figures have taken notice of Dawkins' efforts.
"I wish there were more Ernest Dawkinses in that community," scholar-author Timuel Black told me two years ago. "He's a product of that community ... and he has a loyalty to that community that is very, very impressive."
In championing culture in Englewood, Dawkins ultimately is building on the legacy of the place, for the neighborhood has given the world such major jazz figures as singer Joe Williams, drummer Jack DeJohnette and multi-instrumentalists Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill.
Where others may see despair in Englewood, Dawkins sees possibility.
"There are other things going on in Englewood, other than (what) we hear in the news," says Dawkins, who this year will present the festival's annual Spirit of Jazz Award to saxophonist Jordan, Northeastern Illinois University professor Conrad Worrill, arranger-producer Thomas "Tom Tom" Washington and saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.
"There are a lot of good things happening in Englewood.
"It's a community like every other community. It has its ups and downs. ... But a Whole Foods and Starbucks are coming here. Maybe that trend (of urban crisis) is reversing and will give people opportunity."
The Englewood Jazz Festival surely epitomizes that hope.
Following is the schedule for the 16th annual Englewood Jazz Festival, running 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, rain or shine, at Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St. Admission is free. For more information, phone 773-800-2738 or visit www.englewoodjazzfest.org.
11:30 a.m.: Tammy McCann
12:30 p.m.: Makaya McCraven
1:30 p.m.: Young Masters
2:25 p.m.: Corey Wilkes
3:25 p.m.: New Horizons Ensemble with Kidd Jordan, Jeff Parker
4:20 p.m.: Spirit of Jazz Award presentation
4:45 p.m.: Live the Spirit Residency Big Band
A jazz prodigy
Should a 12-year-old jazz pianist have a publicist, a national media profile, a slick web site and an active touring schedule? Does a child, no matter how much potential, benefit from that degree of promotion and exposure?
Those questions played on my mind as I listened to Joey Alexander perform his Chicago-area debut Friday night at the Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall in Highland Park.
I don't -- and won't -- review the work of a 12-year-old. No one that age ought to be subjected to critical commentary that only adult artists must be prepared to receive (and even they sometimes balk).
But, conversely, when someone this young is showered by repeated standing ovations and cheers of the sort Alexander experienced at Ravinia, what effect does that have on his opinion of his own work and his sense of self? And when he's no longer a prodigy, and therefore no longer an object of fascination, how does he deal with more realistic and sober assessments of his art? And how does he come to terms with the next prodigy basking in the next wave of adulation?
One thing's for sure: The expressions of astonishment that bassist Russell Hall offered while accompanying Alexander, alongside drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr., did not enhance the musical value of the occasion. Nor did Hall's repeated, kitschy give-and-take passages with Alexander.
The young pianist deserves better.
hreich@tribpub.com
"Portraits in Jazz": Howard Reich's e-book collects his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, plus profiles of masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at chicagotribune.com/ebooks.
