Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, our city’s annual salute to the eponymous late saxophonist, will return in its 30th year for a celebration of live jazz in the neighborhoods near where Parker worked and lived, including Harlem’s historic Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Additional jazz events will also be held across the city to celebrate the festival, more details to be announced.

Running August 24 to August 28, the 30th anniversary will bring together storied, veteran players and the next generation of jazz artists including jazz singer and her big band Jazzmeia and Her Noble Force, Brooklyn-born tap dancer Calvin Booker On Tap & Friends; American trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet, NEA Jazz Master bassist Buster Williams featuring his quartet Something More and others; and avant-garde jazz legendary saxophonist Archie Shepp with genre-bending pianist Jason Moran, multi-award winning saxophonist Melissa Aldana, world renowned trumpeter Bria Skonberg, and leader in the field and mentor guitarist Pasquale Grasso with his nostalgic sound.

Schedule

Wednesday, August 24, 5:30 PM-6:30 PM ~ JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: JOAQUIN POZO Y LA CLAVE SUENA, El Sol Brillante, 522 E 12th Street, Manhattan. Join us for an outdoor concert with a master percussionist and his group. Originally from Havana, Joaquin Pozo brings 35 years of experience and profound versatility to his vibrant performances. An innovator in Latin styles from rumba to jazz, Pozo leads this five-piece ensemble on journeys through Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Thursday, August 25, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm, WINARD HARPER & JELI POSSE AND SCREENING: “AMANDLA!: A REVOLUTION IN FOUR-PART HARMONY”, Hansborough Recreation Center, 35 W 134th St, New York, NY 10037. Constantly in reverence of his predecessors while remaining innovative in his own right, Winard Harper has become one of the most celebrated drummers in jazz. Critics have written that he is as pleasing to watch as he is to hear. “As tasteful a drummer as one could ask for,” according to Jeff Kaliss of JazzTimes.

Thursday, August 25, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm, SCREENING: “BUSTER WILLIAMS BASS TO INFINITY” / Q&A WITH BUSTER WILLIAMS AND ADAM KAHAN, The New School, 4th fl., Ernst C. Stiefel Hall, 55 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011. Directed and Produced by Adam Kahan, “Buster Williams Bass to Infinity” is a journey that explores life and legacy, music and mysticism, and America’s greatest cultural contribution to the world – the truly universal art form known as Jazz.  Join Buster Williams and Adam Kahan for a Q&A directly after the film screening.

Friday, August 26, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, MASTERCLASS WITH BUSTER WILLIAMS,  The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 58 W 129th St, New York, NY 10027. One of jazz’s most valuable and enduring sidemen, bassist and composer Buster Williams has flourished through many periods of changing fashions in jazz due to his fat, authoritative, dark tone and highly refined technique on the acoustic bass.

Friday, August 26, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: PARLOR ENTERTAINMENT FEATURING MARJORIE ELIOT AND RUDEL DREARS, Harlem Rose Garden, 6 E 129th St, New York, NY 10035.  An uptown legend, pianist Marjorie Eliot exemplifies “playing from the heart.” A multi-talented artist in the fields of jazz and theatre, she is best known for welcoming listeners into her Edgecombe Avenue parlor every Sunday since 1992, in celebration of life.

Friday, August 26, 6:00 pm – 6:50 pm, ACOUSTIC SET WITH COURTNEY WRIGHT TRIO, Marcus Garvey Park, 18 Mt. Morris Park West, New York, NY 10027. Courtney Wright is a promising young composer and baritone saxophonist based in New York City, where she leads her own jazz orchestra and quintet that perform her original compositions and arrangements. Courtney is a native of Woodbridge, VA, and grew up outside the vibrant jazz scene of Washington, D.C.

Friday, August 26, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, JAZZMEIA HORN AND HER NOBLE FORCE / CALVIN BOOKER ON TAP & FRIENDS, Marcus Garvey Park, 18 Mt. Morris Park West, New York, NY 10027. Tickets or RSVPs are not required to attend this FREE performance and admission is first come first serve. A Grammy-nominated American jazz singer in the vein of Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, Jazzmeia Horn is one of the boldest voices in modern jazz. She’s joined by Calvin Booker, a multi-disciplinary dancer and DJ born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. An original member of the Broadway production of FELA!, he brings his unique style of tap-dancing to the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival for the first time.

Saturday, August 27, 2:00 pm – 2:50 pm, ACOUSTIC SET WITH COURTNEY WRIGHT TRIO, Marcus Garvey Park, 18 Mt. Morris Park West, New York, NY 10027. Courtney Wright is a promising young composer and baritone saxophonist based in New York City, where she leads her own jazz orchestra and quintet that perform her original compositions and arrangements. Courtney is a native of Woodbridge, VA, and grew up outside the vibrant jazz scene of Washington, D.C.

Saturday, August 27, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm, TERENCE BLANCHARD FEATURING THE E-COLLECTIVE AND TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET / BUSTER WILLIAMS & SOMETHING MORE / NIKARA PRESENTS BLACK WALL STREET / VUYO SOTASHE, Marcus Garvey Park, 18 Mt. Morris Park West, New York, NY 10027. Tickets or RSVPs are not required to attend this FREE performance and admission is first come first serve. Terence Blanchard isn’t your average jazz musician—the world-renowned trumpet player and festival alum is also a prolific Academy Award-nominated film composer and an exciting new voice in the opera world. For his latest album Absence, his electro-acoustic quintet E-Collective joins forces with violinist David Balakrishnan’s Turtle Island Quartet.

Sunday, August 28, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm, ARCHIE SHEPP AND JASON MORAN FEATURING CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT / MELISSA ALDANA / BRIA SKONBERG / PASQUALE GRASSO, Tompkins Square Park, E 10th St, New York, NY 10009. Tickets or RSVPs are not required to attend this FREE performance and admission is first come first serve. Archie Shepp and Jason Moran are two avant-garde jazz musicians from different generations that nonetheless share a penchant for pushing the envelope. Shepp is a veteran saxophonist who has been called both a musical firebrand and a cultural radical, standing out even amongst myriad talents in the free jazz generation. Moran is pianist 37 years Shepp’s junior, with an equal respect for tradition and trailblazing.