Nicole Mitchell at Little Black Pearl
by Shamontiel L. Vaughn
I am an accidental jazz lover. An ’80s baby, my favorite music was hip-hop and R&B exclusively, although I could handle some country. I grew up listening to music like Rakim, The Temptations, MC Lyte and Marvin Gaye, but I don’t recall ever bobbing my head to jazz. After I graduated from college, I noticed mediocre rhyming in hip-hop was increasing and R&B was turning into singing rap music. I became burnt out on the radio until I flipped to a Chicago jazz station and found out I could add jazz to my favorite genres of music.
A few of my co-workers lived in Hyde Park and would invite me to get-togethers in their neighborhoods. Now mind you I’d never been thrilled with Hyde Park because I always managed to get lost anytime I went there. But like a trooper, I gave it a shot and started going to the area more.
What I noticed (once I figured out which streets to use to get back to Lake Shore Drive) immediately was the diversity and culture in the community. I started reading more about the Hyde Park community and found HyPa’s web site by accident. That’s how I also found out about the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Curiosity made me volunteer for the 2009 jazz fest. What did I have to do that was so important that I couldn’t dedicate one Saturday to jazz? Nothing.
On September 26, 2009, that’s when I realized it wasn’t just jazz I loved but the Hyde Park community, too. Sitting on the stoop at Hyde Park Union Church and watching different cultures of various generations interact and shout out “hey” when they saw someone familiar made me smile. Quiet as it’s kept, big cities can have camaraderie if we try. After I finished my volunteer work, I strolled around to other venues and realized Hyde Park is not just diverse but also a really beautiful neighborhood.
After that day, I came back more and more to write about different events. I also volunteered for more HyPa jazz fest events. There are some venues from the jazz fest that I’d have probably never visited if not for HyPa. Being both a volunteer and a new-found jazz lover has helped expand my mind and matured my musical tastes. Nowadays I don’t go a day without turning on some smooth or upbeat jazz to get my mind right. I’m still a hip-hop head at heart, but just like Hyde Park, there’s nothing wrong with variety.
For more info on this writer, visit http://www.shamontiel.com.
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