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.