Hyde Park Jazz Festival presents The Makanda Project featuring Dee Alexander

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival presents The Makanda Project featuring Dee Alexander

Saturday, September 28th | 9:30pm
Logan Center | Performance Hall
915 E. 60th Street | Chicago
FREE

The Makanda Project, based in Boston, was started in 2005 to explore the previously unrecorded compositions of Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001). Dr. McIntyre, who also made major contributions as a multi-instrumentalist and educator, was a prolific composer with a distinctive voice and a unique gift for doing unexpected things with very musical results. He recorded 75 of his compositions and upon his passing, another 350 were found that had never been recorded or, in most cases, even performed in public. Makanda Project leader and pianist John Kordalewski, a former McIntyre student (who also recently appeared at the Logan Center in Chicago as arranger and conductor for the Chico Freeman Orchestra), has arranged over 60 of these pieces for the group’s 10-member horn section, and this music is the core of the group’s repertoire. The members of the group include several noted Boston-area bandleaders as well as top-level musicians from New York and New England.

Given that there is no record of Dr. McIntyre having performed these compositions, the Makanda Project differs from “tribute bands” whose performances are inevitably compared with original recordings. Rather, the McIntyre compositions have served as a vehicle for the group to develop its own sound and identity.

In addition to touring, the group has maintained a community focus and established a presence on the Boston jazz scene through their ongoing series of self-produced free concerts. They have also developed collaborations with renowned musicians including Oliver Lake, Chico Freeman, Ricky Ford, Craig Harris, Michael Gregory Jackson, and Feya Faku, who have joined the group as guest artists, performing some of their own compositions as well as McIntyre pieces.

Dee Alexander, a Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz awardee and one of Chicago’s most gifted and respected vocalists and songwriters, first performed with the Makanda Project in Boston in 2022 and has made annual visits since. Alexander’s talents span every music genre, from gospel to R&B, blues to neo-soul. She is one of the most accomplished voice improvisers in the world today, boasting long and fruitful associations with members of Chicago’s jazz elite including Ramsey Lewis, Orbert Davis, Nicole Mitchelle, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Working with someone with her artistic sensibilities and range of vocal abilities has enabled The Makanda Project to explore new horizons and continue to grow.

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival performance program will include compositions by Dee Alexander, newly orchestrated for the large ensemble, along with McIntyre pieces from the group’s repertoire. It will include songs with lyrics, improvised solos within the unique forms of Dr. McIntyre’s compositions, free improvisation, and use of the voice as a color within the horn section.

The musicians:

Dee Alexander – voice
Kurtis Rivers – alto saxophone
Rajiv Halim – alto and soprano saxophone, flute
Sean Berry – tenor saxophone
Temidayo Balogun – tenor saxophone
Charlie Kohlhase – baritone saxophone
Jerry Sabatini – trumpet
Haneef Nelson – trumpet
Alfred Patterson – trombone
Richard Harper – trombone
Bill Lowe – bass trombone
John Kordalewski – piano
Avery Sharpe – bass
Yoron Israel – drums