The Syracuse Jazz Festival is an annual free admission outdoor summer music festival staged in Syracuse, New York. It was founded by jazz presenter Frank Malfitano and ran from 1982 to 2017. [1]
This festival is still active and starts on June 21 in 2023.
Syracuse Jazz Fest was praised by the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), and previously ranked as the Central New York Region's "Best Music Festival". Syracuse Jazz Fest and was ranked as "One of the top five free jazz festivals in America". (Fest Press: A Guide To US Music Festivals) [2] Referred to by Down Beat and Jazz Times Magazines as "The Northeast's Largest Free Jazz Festival". [1]
Aretha Franklin headlined the 2015 festival, [3] which also featured Lake Street Dive, Wynton Marsalis & The Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra and Buckwheat Zydeco. [4]
Other artists and headliners who appeared and performed at Syracuse Jazz Fest include: Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Smokey Robinson, Gino Vannelli, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chuck Mangione, David Sanborn, Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Diana Krall, Grover Washington Jr., Boz Scaggs, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, The Neville Brothers, Pete Fountain, Mark Murphy, Dr John, Little Jimmy Scott, Gregory Porter, Donovan, The Doobie Brothers, Ronnie Laws, Average White Band, Chico Hamilton, Fathead Newman, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mose Allison, Les McCann, The Funk Brothers, Pat Metheny Group, Return to Forever, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Ivan Lins, Freddy Cole, New York Voices, Treme Brass Band, Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, Manhattan Transfer, Kenny G, Lizz Wright, Cyrille Aimee, Jane Monheit, Yellowjackets, Jaco Pastorius Big band, Nancy Kelly, Brubeck Brothers, Count Basie Orchestra, Moscow State Jazz Orchestra, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones and The Brecker Brothers. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
Frank Malfitano received a national "Jazz Hero Award" from the Jazz Journalists Association presented by JJA's Susan Brink.
Featured artists included Michael McDonald, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Larry Coryell's Original Eleventh House, Raul Malo & The Mavericks, and a Jazz Fest All Star Tribute to legendary jazz vocalist Mark Murphy, featuring appearances by New York Voices, Randy Brecker and Nancy Kelly.
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a wide range of musical styles. Their sound has merged rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band jazz.
John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz bassist, composer and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, most notably with Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
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ChicagoFest was a Chicago music festival established in 1978 by Mayor Michael Bilandic. It was a two-week event held annually at Navy Pier that featured sixteen separate stages, each sponsored by a national retail brand and a media sponsor compatible to the stage's format, e.g. Rock WLUP, Chicago Tribune Jazz, Miller Brewing Company Blues and WXRT, that broadcast live from the festival. The stages were: Rock, Classic Rock, Country, Blues, Comedy, Roller Disco, Pin Ball Arcade, Jazz, Children's, Variety, Ethnic, as well as a Main stage seating 30,000. There were approximately 600 concert performances by headline artists produced each year.
The Birthday Concert is a live album by Jaco Pastorius released posthumously in 1995. It was recorded in Florida in 1981 to celebrate Pastorius' 30th birthday. Guests included his friends, such as Michael Brecker and the Peter Graves Orchestra.
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Troy Andrews, also known by the stage name Trombone Shorty, is an American musician, producer, and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known as a trombone and trumpet player but also plays drums, organ, and tuba. He has worked with some of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip hop. Andrews is the younger brother of trumpeter and bandleader James Andrews III and the grandson of singer and songwriter Jessie Hill. Andrews began playing trombone at age four, and since 2009 has toured with his own band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.
"Sophisticated Lady" is a jazz standard, composed as an instrumental in 1932 by Duke Ellington.
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