A diamond in the rough....

Last night I headed down to the new Checkboard Lounge in Hyde Park to see the Dee Alexander quartet, featuring Ms. Alexander on all things vocal, Miguel De La Cerna on piano, Harrison Bankhead on bass and Leon Joyce Jr. on drums.

The Checkerboard is the relocated version of the club originally owned by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells many years ago. It's previous location became dilapidated and apparently a fire hazard, and was shut down. Its current owner, L.C. Thurman relocated it to Hyde Park where it re-opened in shinier, cleaner digs. It's mostly blues but on Sunday nights they present jazz, and last night they broke all their attendance records with Ms. Alexander commanding the stage.

When most people think of jazz vocalists in Chicago, Kurt Elling is probalby the first name to come to mind. If you ask people again in 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised if Dee Alexander came first.

She's incredibly talented and how she's managed to stay hidden and unknown so long is a mystery to me. Dee is comfortable in almost any musical setting, doing more straight ahead oriented singing with her quartet, performing with Douglas Ewart's Inventions, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, and in some of the late Malachi Thompson's recordings.

Utilizing her instrument in myriad ways, she has a huge range and a rich tone, improvising in a manner that mimics instruments, destroys preconceived notions of the limits of the human voice, sometimes producing rhythmic patterns that are reminiscent of afro-pea/Zap Mama vocalizations.

Her band provided great support for her excursions, including some pieces that she was working on with Light Henry Huff when he passed away, pieces that she'll be performing later this year in Chicago in a concert featuring Douglas Ewart on reeds. Huff was one of the lesser known reedists in the AACM, a one man spiritual center and shamanistic healer who practiced traditional medicine from a variety of cultures.

She'll also be featured in the Millennium Park series this summer in Chicago, doing a tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. I can't think of a singer better equipped to accomplish that daunting task.

New Yorkers will get a chance to check her out during this year's Vision Festival where she'll be appearing with Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, and maybe in a gig of her own around the city if she can find something. She's done some shows in NYC in the past with Oliver Lake, a musician she's begun to work with.

Unfortunately she only has one recording right now, a live recording from the Hothouse. Hopefully some enterprising soul sees the opportunity to document her beautiful voice so she can share it with more people soon.