Tenth DC Jazz Festival June 24-29

Trombone Shorty will be one of the featured acts at 2014 DC Jazz Festival. Photo © Ron Weinstock

The Tenth DC Jazz Festival will bring a wide range of jazz to Washington DC June 24-29. First known as the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, the festival changed its name a few years ago. This year the Festival also moves to later in June. 

Helen Sung will be part of a salute of Women In Jazz

The Festival takes place in a number of venues in the Nation’s Capital over this period. Once again The Hamilton Live, a few blocks from the White House, will feature a wide range of artists over the Festival span. Located at 1600 14th Street, NW, Performers at the Hamilton Live will include Paquito D’Rivera, The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience, Snarky Puppy, Brass-A-Holics, Etienne Charles and Rudresh Mahanthappa, and a salute to Women in Jazz with rising stars Tia Fuller and Helen Sung. Also, the Roy Hargrove Quintet will be there for a Prelude Kickoff Concert, June 21.

Frederick Yonnet. Photo © Ron Weinstock

There will be three days of performances at Yards Park at the Capital Riverfront. This is a follow-up to last year’s highly successful show at Kastles Stadium with The Roots. Fans will enjoy jazz at the Capitol Riverfront overlooking the Anacostia River where there will be wine and beer tastings, chef demonstrations and a marketplace. Performers for Jazz at the Riverfront include Trombone Shorty, Gregory Porter, Rebirth Brass Band, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) and very special guests, vocalist Akua Allrich and harmonica virtuoso Frédéric Yonnet. 


The Festival Also promotes Jazz in the ‘Hoods that takes place in over 40 venues with more than 80 performances in 21 neighborhoods around the city. Featured partners include The Howard Theatre, Bohemian Caverns, CapitalBop D.C.’s Jazz Loft Series, East River Jazz, the National Gallery of Arts Sculpture Garden, and Late Night at Loews Madison, among other venues. Artists include Marc Cary, Corcoran Holt, Lafayette Gilchrest, Allyn Johnson, Orrin Evans, Sharón Clark, Sin Miedo, Matana Roberts, and many more. 

Also taking place will be a program, Dave Brubeck Reimagined, at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. Renowned pianist Cyrus Chestnut and his quartet will bring unique interpretations of the music of Dave Brubeck. There will also be the annual Jazz ‘n Families Fun Days at the Phillips Collection that celebrates the synergy between jazz and the visual arts, with performances in the Phillips Collection’s music room and auditorium by more than a dozen regional artists and youth ensembles. Performers will include Rochelle Rice, Noble Jolley, Herman Burney and the Jazzin’ at Sitar Ensemble, Trio Caliente, Kayla Waters, and Tony Martucci 
 

Orrin Evans will be one of many performers as part of Jazz in the ‘Hoods

As can be seen, this is quite a line-up of performers. There will also be a variety of educational programs taking place at this time as well. For more information (including the festival schedule when it is released), visit www.dcjazzfest. org.

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 10

This is the last post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances, and being a bit less verbose. For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

The Hamilton features The John Scofeld Trio, featuring the well-known guitarist.

Saxophonist Brad Collins Trio at Georgia Brown’s at 10 AM

Tiacoh Sadia Afro-Jazz (4:00 PM) at the African Heritage Center (1320 Good Hope Road Southeast, Washington, DC) part of the East River Jazz Festival series.

DC Choro at 7:00PM at Grill From Ipanema (1858 Columbia Road NW, Wash. DC.) Choro is a Brazilian musical style that bears similarities to classic ragtime.

Guitarist Pino Daniele is at the Howard Theatre.

Freedom Children Celebration with Reginald Cyntje (seen above) at Twins Lounge

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 9

This is the ninth post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest (the Loft Mega-Fest is today) since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances, and being a bit less verbose.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

Warre Wolf at 2012 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival

The terrific vibraphonist Warren Wolf leads his Quartet at Faith Presbyterian Church (5PM show) as part of the East River Jazz Festival.

Gallery O on H Street (1354 H Street, NE Washington) has a day and evening of music starting with a student ensemble at 5:30. Saxophonist and composer Brad Linde Quintet is on at 6:40PM; Lennard Jack & Fusion are on at 7:50PM and the Afro-Bop Alliance is on at 9:15PM.

The Hamilton has trumpeter Etienne Charles & Kaiso and pianist Monty Alexander & The Harlem-Kingston Express.

Bohemian Gardens hosts saxophonist Marcus Strickland once more.

Vocalist Dee Stone is at the Black Fox Lounge.

For blues fans, The Tinner Hill Blues Festival takes place in Falls Church.

Here is a video of Brad Linde Ensemble with guest Lee Konitz (who is not scheduled to appear at the DC Jazz Festival).

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 8

This is the eighth post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances, and being a bit less verbose.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

Mark Prince at 2012 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival

Drummer Mark Prince’s Aqua Leo is at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden at 5:00PM. Prince is an accomplished drummer who is able to transverse hip hop and rhythm & blues to contemporary and straight-ahead jazz.

At the Hamilton, The Brass-a-Holics will be performing a tribute to the late Chuck Brown with a mix of go go and New Orleans Brass Band.

Vocalist Lena Seikaly will be performing at the Mandarin Oriental

Acclaimed Saxophonist Marcus Strickland will be the Bohemian Caverns. Here he is in performance.

Donvonte McCoy, who Capital Bop calls perhaps the DC area’s leading trumpeter, is at the 18th Street Lounge.

For a non Jazz Festival show, Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy along with Memphis Gold will be at the State Theatre for the opening event of the Tinner Hill Blues Festival. This evening I will be passing on the several excellent jazz programs to see this performance.

Diunna Greenleaf and Jonn Del Toro Richarson at 2010 DC Blues Festival at the Carter Barron

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 7

Michael Thomas

This is the seventh post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

At 1:00 PM, as part of the East River Jazz Festival, Todd Marcus Ensemble will be at the East River Washington Senior Wellness Center. Todd Marcus, one of the few who specialize in the bass clarinet, leads a little big band which displays his compositions and ability to make use of a variety of musical colors. Capital Bop notes that he leads a nine piece ensemble. “Thankfully, both Marcus’s oddball instrumentalism and his offbeat ensemble are astonishingly strong, modern and infectious. Few people improvise with more fervor or write music better than he does.”

At 5:00PM, trumpeter Michael Thomas will be featured at the Phillips Collection with their hard bop and blues inspired by such legendary figures as Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Art Blakey. This is hard swinging music at its finest.

Roberta Gambarini

The Hamilton hosts the wonderful singer Roberta Gambarini along with the Cyrus Chestnut Trio, led by one of today’s most accomplished pianists.

The 6th and I Historic Synagogue will host the Anat Cohen Quartet. Proficient on saxophone as well as clarinet, Anat Cohen is a repeat poll winner on the clarinet and brings a contemporary approach to traditional jazz and Brazilian music as well as displays her mastery of the modern jazz canon.

Anat Cohen with guitarist Howard Alden

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 6

This is the sixth post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

Roy Hargrov

The Hamilton features trumpeter Roy Hargrove this evening. Hargrove is among the leading trumpeters and composers to emerge in the past several decades and a DC Jazz Festival favorite.

Bistrot Lepic Wine bar in Georgetown will feature Véronneau. Véronneau is an acoustic, song-based group playing Latin Jazz, Gypsy Swing and much more featuring the marvelous vocals of Lynn Véronneau along with Ken Avis on guitar, vocals and percussion, David Rosenblatt on guitar and percussion and Pete Walby on drums. Their first recording is the wonderul Joy of Living (Véronneau Music) that showcases Ms. Véronneau’s marvelous singing of which I have written, :She simply has a way of touching the listener's heart … .” They have just issued the Jazz Samba Project which celebrates the classic Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd record Jazz Samba that was recorded in Washington 50 years ago.

Lena Seikaly

The Atlas Performing Arts Center hosts both a Master Class and a performance by guitarist Rodney Richardson and vocalist Lena Seikaly. Richardson is among the foremost jazz guitarists (as well as educators) in the area whilst vocalist Seikaly has emerged as among the many fine jazz singers in the region. Of her most recent CD, Lovely Changes, the website CapitalBop.com said, “In just a few years, Seikaly has established herself as a major jazz vocalist and educator in the D.C. area, performing with the cream of the local crop. …The arrangements and musicianship on the album are crafted to serve the songs, leaving space for the vocal to shine front-and-center. That voice, the endlessly inventive arrangements, and the sensitive ensemble musicianship serve to make Lovely Changes a complete delight.”

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 5

This is the fifth post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

Jimmy Heath

At 6:00PM the Millennium Stage will host The Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. For information of them visit http://www.bohemiancavernsjazzorchestra.com/live/.

The Hamilton hosts a show with the Antonio Hart Organ Trio and NEA Jazz Master, Jimmy Heath. Hart is a Baltimore Native who has become amongst the most acclaimed alto saxophonists today. In addition to his own seven albums, he has worked with the David Holland Big Band, Roy Hargrove, Frank Wess, Gary Bartz and others. Jimmy Heath is a little giant of the tenor saxophonist, acclaimed as a composer, as well as a musician and part of the legendary Heath brothers. One probably cannot name a major jazz figure with whom he wasn’t friends or worked with ranging from John Coltrane, james Moody to Miles Davis (who recorded Heath’s Gingerbread Boy among other tunes.

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 4

Kris Funn

This is the fourth post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.

At 6:00 PM, the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage will feature bassist Kris Funn. This Baltimore, Maryland native is currently a member of trumpeter Christian Scott’s Band. He currently leads Kris Funn & Corner Store. which also features drummer Quincy Phillips of the Roy Hargrove Quintet. The band features Funn’s blues-battered bass lines, rocking originals, and dramatically danceable revisions of John Coltrane and Sam Cooke tunes.

The Kennedy Center at 7:30 hosts Jazz Meets The Classics with the Classical Jazz Quartet featuring Kenny Barron, Stefon Harris, Ron Carter, Lewis Nash; Paquito D’Rivera Sextet; Pepe Rivero; Michael Phillip Mossman and Pernell Saturnino. This is the signature concert featuring a number of NEA Jazz Masters.

Jonathan Batiste

The Hamilton hosts a show with groups led by pianist Jonathan Batiste and bassist Ben Williams. Batiste is a member of the celebrated Batiste Family of New Orleans and with Henry Butler, and Davell Crawford, is among the leading contemporary proponents of the New Orleans piano tradition. But he is so much more as indicated by his performances with Roy Hargrove's Big Band, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson and others and has issued several albums. Bassist Ben Williams is a Washington DC native who won the Theloious Monk International Competition for Bass in 2009. He has performed with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Ron Blake, Stefon Harris, Karreim Riggins, Hamiett Bluett, James Williams, Bobby Watson, and Winard Harper. His recently issued the excellent album State of Art on Concord Jazz.

The Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra has its weekly performance at the Bohemian Gardens. For information of them visit http://www.bohemiancavernsjazzorchestra.com/live/.


For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

DC Jazz Festival Picks for June 3

This is the third post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC JazzLoft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.

For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

Elijah Jamal Balbed

The Phillips Collection, the prestigious modern art museum near Dupont Circle hosts the first of two Jazz 'n Families Fun Days. Performances to note today include Elijah Jamal Balbed Quartet at 2:00PM featuring one of the DC area’s acclaimed young saxophonists. Michael Bowie and Sine Qua Non appears at 3:30PM. The bassist leads a five-piece ensemble that applies specific lessons from Spanish classical guitar music to an unorthodox jazz combo setting, without a guitarist. Legendary pianist Kenny Barron appears at 4:00PM.

At 6:00PM, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage will host a performance by the Erena Terakubo Quartet leading an ensemble from Berklee College of Music. The Sapporo, Japan native plays alto saxophone. Saxophonist David Sanchez is at the Hamilton this evening. David Sanchez was mentored by Dizzy Gillepsie, toured with Kenny Barron, Roy Haynes and legendary drummer Elvin Jones, while recording with Barron and Haynes respectively. He incorporates and re-contextualizes the rhythms and folk melodies of his native Puerto Rico in his music that has achieved international acclaim including winning a Latin Grammy® Award. Here is David Sanchez performing.

DC Jazz Festival Picks For June 1

This is the first post I am making to highlight some of the shows associated with this year’s DC Jazz Festival. I am specifically not highlighting the DC Jazz Loft Fest since I have posted on this already. I will may also pick a few other non festival shows around the DC Virginia area that should not be overlooked. I am posting this a day ahead of the date of performances.  For more information visit http://www.dcjazzfest.org/content.cfm/schedule_and_major_events.

The legendary bassist Ron Carter at the Bohemian Gardens for the first of two nights at this legendary DC club. Ron Carter may have recorded more than any bass player in history (he is on over 2000 albums) who first came to notice as part of the last great Miles Davis Quintet, and recorded with Eric Dolphy, Esther Phillips, Freddie Hubbard, Gil Evans and countless others.

Akua Allrich and Randy Weston trio at the Hamilton. The Hamilton, a relatively new venue in the Penn Quarter area, is across E Street from the Williard Hotel. Randy Weston has a recording career that now extends into its seventh decade and with deep roots in blues as well as the music of Monk and Bud Powell was among those pioneering by incorporating the music of Africa in his music. Here is Randy Weston playing his celebrated Little Niles.

Kristine Key is one of the DC area’s fine jazz vocalists and will be performing at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Below she is pictured at the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival where she portrayed Billie Holiday in a theatrical production, Sistas Can Sa-a-ng.