Hyde Park Union Church presents the 14th Annual

  
 
Jazz Christmas
  
 

Featuring the Willie Pickens Trio with guest artists Branford Marsalis and Dee Alexander

When: Friday, December 19, 8 p.m.

Where: Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 South Woodlawn Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60637 Directions

Cost: Concert-Only Tickets are $40. For only slightly more, $50, get the Deluxe Ticket, which includes both the concert and a reception with the artists!

All proceeds benefit Centers for New Horizons.

 

Dee Alexander

 

  

Featured Artists:

Willie Pickens

Pianist Willie Pickens has made many appearances at the Chicago Jazz Festival and has performed with Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Elvin Jones, James Moody, Roy Eldridge, Max Roach, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Eddie Harris, Louis Bellson, Bunky Green, and Red Holloway. Pickens began his career on a national hit record—Eddie Harris' 1961 Exodus, and remains of Chicago's most in-demand pianists. Says The Chicago Tribune: "With his large & complex chords, his great splashes of color and dissonance in the right hand and his barrelhouse octaves in the left, Pickens never lets the dramatic intensity flag."

 

Branford Marsalis

The oldest of the four musical Marsalis brothers, Branford Marsalis has had an impressive career. In the 80s he played with many big-time groups and musicians, including the Art Blakey big band, Clark Terry, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, his brother Wynton Marsalis' highly influential group, Herbie Hancock's V.S.O.P. II, Miles Davis, and Sting. By 1986, he was leading his own group. After a couple of film appearances, Branford really entered the limelight when he joined Jay Leno's Tonight Show as the musical director, in 1992. In 2002, he formed his own label, Marsalis Music, to be a true independent label focused on supporting the development of musicians. Marsalis Music has released albums by such diverse artists as Doug Wamble, Harry Connick, Miguel Zenon and others. Branford has also kept busy, releasing a handful of albums on his label, including Footsteps Of Our Fathers in 2002, Romare Bearden Revealed in 2003, Eternal in 2004, and Braggtown in 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

www.schindelbeck.de

 

 

Dee Alexander

Dee Alexander is one of Chicago’s most gifted and respected female vocalist/songwriters. Her talents span every music genre, from Gospel to R&B, from Blues to Neo-Soul. Yet her true heart and soul are experienced in their purest form through her performance of Jazz music. Besides being a phenomenal headliner in her own right, Dee has performed as the opening act for many of her musical peers, including David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, Gerald Albright, Roy Ayers, Joshua Redman, and the O’Jays. Internationally, Ms. Alexander has performed at the “2006 Made in Chicago Festival” in Poznan, Poland with the Evolution Ensemble and Nicole Mitchell’s Harambee Project; 2006 Le Labbra Nude Jazz Festival with Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble in Rome, Italy; Banlieues Bleues Festival 2004 in Paris, France with Douglas Ewart and Trio Inventions. She has toured extensively in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and France with Sue Conway and the Victory Singers, and in Singapore and Holland with the Art Porter Quartet at the North Sea Jazz Festival.