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Dee Alexander Celebrates Release of New Album in Hyde Park Friday

By Sam Cholke | July 29, 2014 6:36am
 Dee Alexander will celebrate the release of her new album, "Songs My Mother Loves," on Friday at the Logan Center for the Arts.
Dee Alexander will celebrate the release of her new album, "Songs My Mother Loves," on Friday at the Logan Center for the Arts.
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Courtesy of Dee Alexander

HYDE PARK — Jazz vocalist Dee Alexander will celebrate the release of her new album, “Songs My Mother Loves,” on Friday at the Logan Center for the Arts.

The 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. performances on the University of Chicago campus at the Logan Center, 915 E. 60th St., will mark the culmination of more than a year of work by Alexander to memorialize some of the first songs she ever heard from her mother.

“Some of my fondest memories were of being awakened many early mornings to the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and my own mother singing along with them while she handled her morning housework,” Alexander wrote when she was recording in 2013. “She gave me the great gift of weaving music into my life and now I am giving it back.”

Alexander’s fans have also backed the project, contributing nearly $7,000 on crowdfunding site 3Arts.com to see the renditions of “Tis Autumn” and “This is Always” completed. The Joyce Foundation matched the funds raised on the site.

“I have often thought if I could inspire a young person the way my mother inspired me I would be able to complete the circle of creative energy that allows creative art forms to continue to evolve,” Alexander wrote on the site as she appealed for help finishing an idea she started hashing out during a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2013.

Tickets are $20, $10 for students. VIP seating is available for $50 and includes a copy of the album.

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