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 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.