Event Details
The Logan Center for the Arts and Hyde Park Jazz Society presents Third Tuesday Jazz: Ernest Dawkins Quartet
Join Ernest Dawkins at our Third Tuesday Jazz Series with an intimate performance in Café Logan.
November 18th | 7:30pm
Logan Center for the Arts | Cafe Logan
915 E. 60 th Street | Chicago, IL
Ernest Dawkins, saxophones/percussion
Elio Wijaya, piano
Josh Ramos, bass
Frank Morrison IV, drums
Dawkins started his musical journey at the tender age of eight, when he learned how to play the bass and conga drums. At nineteen, he became mesmerized by the sound of the saxophone while listening to his father’s jazz recordings of Lester Young. It was not until he heard the alto sax of Guido Sinclair, however, that he knew this was the instrument he wanted to play. Within a week, he had purchased his first saxophone, clarinet, and flute. Two weeks later, Dawkins got his first lesson from members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). From there, his illustrious career in music began.
Dawkins was named ‘Chicagoan of the Year’ twice by the Chicago Tribune, most recently in 2001. He received a Meet the Composers Round VII New Residencies grant in 2000 and has been awarded the State of Illinois Governors Fellowship award twice. In 2008, he received a Governor’s International Grant. Dawkins established The Englewood Jazz Festival, now in its 14th year and founded Live The Spirit Residency, a not-for-profit arts organization committed to improving access to creative and improvised music for under-served communities within the city of Chicago.
He has created commissioned works for the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Sons d’Hiver Festival, Banliues Bleues Festival, the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and the King Arts Complex of Columbus Ohio. He is currently composing a new piece Commissioned by Live The Spirit Residency, to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Marit Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Dawkins is an active member in the local arts community and is former Chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Dawkins has worked with a myriad of music greats including: Ramsey Lewis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Willie Pickens, Malachi Favors, Henry Threadgill, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Braxton, Jack McDuff, Don Moye, Jerry Butler, and The Dells.
His most recent critically acclaimed Cd, Afro Straight featuring the Afro Straight on Delmark Records, is his first Jazz Standards project, In 2012 he released Chicago Trio (Ernest Dawkins, Hamid Drake, Harrison Bankhead), Rouge Art Records, Live at the Velvet Lounge, Dedicated to Fred Anderson [Rogue Art]. In 2011, he released New Horizons Ensemble, The Prairie Prophet [Delmark Records].
In addition to composing and performing, Dawkins is an entrepreneur with years of experience working with new media technologies to produce and promote his work and that of the creative and improvisational community online and in digital venues.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Hyde Park Jazz Society selects local jazz musicians and those with a Chicago connection to perform on the third Tuesday of the month from October to June at Café Logan. The Café will offer its full menu for purchase, including wine, beer, and a coffee bar.
Third Tuesday Jazz is presented by the Logan Center, Hyde Park Jazz Society, and 90.9FM WDCB Jazz Radio with support from the Robert S. Guttman Family Charitable Fund and friends of the Logan Center.
Admission is free; suggested donation $5, seating is first come, first served.
Parking is free in surface lot at 60th and Drexel Avenue.
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