The Harper Court Summer Music Series in Hyde Park, organized by the Silver Room’s Eric Williams in conjunction with the University of Chicago, has consisted of four free open-air concerts between May and August—and the last, on Wednesday, August 31, is a world-music house party reuniting the creators of Africa Hi-Fi, a beloved Sonotheque residency that ran from 2004 through 2009. Ron Trent and Joseph Bryl will DJ, Sonia Hassan will host, and trumpeter and singer-songwriter Sam Trump will perform live.
Ron Trent is a world-renowned house-music producer and DJ who cofounded the label Prescription in 1993. In 1996, Trent moved to New York, where he danced, produced, and spun for Jonesy Hines’s Giant Step. There he was the opening DJ for Fela Kuti. On returning to Chicago, he met Hassan. “We were like, ‘Ain’t nobody’s doing an Afrobeat party here,’” Trent recalls. “Africa is the cultural hub of all other forms of music. The DNA starts there . . . dance music, jazz, all these sort of things.”
