Thursday, August 29, 2024
The DC Jazz Festival, DC JazzFest for short, has been a District-wide happening from the get-go. Musicians performed at 18 venues during the inaugural five-day festival (then called the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival), which took place over the segue from September to October in 2005. Its centerpiece: a free all-day concert at the Sylvan Theater, on the grounds of the Washington Monument.
This year, DC JazzFest marks its 20th anniversary — counting from a sneak-preview gala held at U Street’s Lincoln Theatre in the fall of 2004. Over the two decades since, it has shifted from fall to spring to summer, expanded, contracted and juggled a variety of venues, going virtual when the pandemic hit.
Having locked in Labor Day weekend (short of Labor Day), the 2024 DC JazzFest came to life at noon yesterday in Franklin Park; evening performances followed at the Kennedy Center, Hamilton Live and the Embassy of Australia.
Tonight, Thursday, Aug. 29, groups will perform at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (free, SRO), Takoma Station ($20), Mr. Henry’s (sold out) and the Kreeger Museum (also sold out). Friday night’s venues: the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (free, SRO), Westminster Church ($10 donation) and The Anthem ($69 to $299), where Grammy-winning singers Jacob Collier, from London, and Samara Joy, from the Bronx, will perform at 7:30 and 8:50 p.m., respectively. DJ D-Nice will wrap (and rap) things up starting at 10:10 p.m.
The main event, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m., is DC JazzFest at The Wharf, the multi-billion-dollar development along the Washington Channel in Southwest. Standing tickets for outdoor performances are $25 per day; seated tickets for shows outdoors and indoors at The Wharf’s Union Stage and nearby Arena Stage are $150 per day ($275 VIP), $250 for both days ($500 VIP). (The Anthem, the larger music venue at The Wharf, is hosting a sold-out performance by Nigerian singer Tems on Saturday and closed on Sunday.)
For the first time, Arena Stage will host the festival’s free Meet the Artists events, interwoven with performances on Saturday and Sunday at Arena and The Wharf.
“When we first introduced the Meet the Artists component to the DC Jazz Festival, our goal was to foster deeper connections between the artists and the community,” said CEO Sunny Sumter, who joined the festival in 2008, becoming executive director two years later.
“It’s been incredible to see how this initiative has evolved, providing a platform for meaningful conversations, personal stories and shared passion for jazz,” she added. “Meet the Artists has truly enriched our festival by offering an exclusive opportunity for fans to learn from and interact with some of the most talented musicians in the world.”
Meet the Artists gets rolling on Saturday morning with “Coffee with D-Nice” at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m., Grammy-winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington — founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the Carr Center, an African American arts center in Detroit — will give a talk and lead an exhibit tour. That night, at 6:30 p.m., Carrington will perform at Arena with her New Standards group.
After a break for lunch, the “Downbeat Blindfold Test with Stanley Clarke” is set for 1 p.m. Clarke — bassist for the late keyboardist Chick Corea’s breakthrough fusion group Return to Forever — will appear with his band N 4Ever at District Pier at 8:45 p.m.
Galactic, a Big Easy funk group with Chevy Chase roots — performing at District Pier at 6:55 p.m. — will present “Culture in the Music: From Cuba to New Orleans” at 2 p.m. At 3 p.m., following a 12:30 Arena performance by Generations: Jabali Billy Hart, a panel will pay tribute to D.C. native Hart, the drummer with Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi sextet.
At 4 p.m., Arena will host a conversation with Philadelphia-born pianist Joe Block, a recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award. You can catch Block’s Open Heart Trio at 2:30 p.m. at Transit Pier.
Legendary bassist Ron Carter, now 87, who will perform at Arena that night at 9:10 p.m., will lead a “How to Audition” session at 5 p.m. The last Meet the Artists event on Saturday, at 6 p.m., will introduce the winning band from the finals of the DCJazzPrix competition, held at 2 p.m. at Union Stage.
On Sunday, the first artist to meet, at 12:30 p.m., is Latin jazz percussionist Bobby Sanabria, whose Multiverse Big Band plays at District Pier at 3:15 p.m. Carrington and Carter will return at 1:30 p.m. to participate in a not-to-be-missed panel of NEA Jazz Masters, also including pianist Kenny Barron, a sideman with Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard, who can be heard at Arena with his Voyage Trio on Saturday at 4 p.m.; DC JazzFest Artistic Director Willard Jenkins; and five-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves, who will sing out at The Wharf’s District Pier later that afternoon at 5 p.m.
More Meet the Artists: At 3:30 p.m., “International Jazz Beyond Boundaries” is the topic for Italian trumpet and flugelhorn player Paolo Fresu, who performs Saturday at 6 p.m. at Transit Pier; French bassist Clovis Nicolas, heard earlier on Sunday, at 2:15 p.m. at Transit Pier; and Finnish pianist Joonas Haavisto, also heard earlier on Sunday, with German pianist Monika Herzig, at 2 p.m. at Union Stage.
Finally, at 5:30 p.m., a 100th year celebration of saxophonist Sonny Stitt, a Giant of Jazz who died of cancer in D.C. in 1982, at age 58, will feature his daughter Katea Stitt, program director at WPFW. The Sonny Stitt Centennial concert is at 3:45 p.m. at Arena.
Tickets for performances tonight and tomorrow night, for DC JazzFest at The Wharf and for Meet the Artists events are available, with the complete festival schedule, at dcjazzfest.org.