This Memorial Day weekend, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival is held in the downtown district, with performances at Metropolitan Park and Daily’s Place. A staple of city-run cultural events for four decades, each year jazz legends and emerging artists perform at multiple on-site venues. Last year’s festival attracted an estimated 75,000 attendees, creating an estimable, positive economic impact on the city. …
JME Staff Picks | 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival
The Jacksonville Jazz Festival will return to the city’s Downtown on Memorial Day weekend, kicking off with the storied Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition at the Florida Theatre on Thursday, May 25 and continuing with three days and nights of performances on two stages in the heart of the Urban Core. The buzz on this year’s fest is that it might …
Playlist | Jacksonville Jazz Festival 2023 Primer
The 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival returns Memorial Day Weekend, kicking off on Thursday, May 25 with the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition (feat. Duval drummer extraordinaire Ulysses Owens Jr. filling out th rhythm section), and continues with three days and nights of official programming, plus countless after-hours events, many of which are part of the popular Jazz Fest After Dark Series. …
With Jazz Fest After Dark and More, the City’s Music Scene Extends the Breadth, and hours, of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Weekend
All That Jazz (And More)
For several years now, the return of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has meant the return of Jazz Fest After Dark, a slate of programming that extends the breadth and hours of the official festival festivities to venues in and around the city’s urban core. Presented by Moon River Pizza, JFAD is the brainchild of Jason Lewis, the legendary local concert …
Ulysses Owens Jr. On Who to See & Hear at the 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Fest
Jazz Fest with U
As a supporter of the Jacksonville Jazz Fest since I was about 16 years old, I look forward to the lineup announcement annually. And what excites me about this 2023 lineup is that is includes some of the most dynamic jazz musicians relevant today and still playing at a high level. This year’s fest also includes a vast array of …
Wynton Marsalis, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Samara Joy, Ulysses Owens Jr. and More to Play 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival
For more than 40 years, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has brought international jazz legends and emerging artists, as well as offering local musicians the chance to be seen and heard. Held every Memorial Day Weekend, the festival attracts jazz fans from around the globe to soak up some (hopefully) warmer weather and cool sounds on different stages. This year is …
JME Recommends | Contemporary Jazz Artists You Should Know
The shape of jazz right now
Undoubtedly, Jazz is having a moment. Not since the 1980’s, when many classic albums were re-released on CD, have the ears of mainstream audiences turned toward artists working in jazz, an original and storied American art form. Artists like saxophonists Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington, multi-instrumentalist Ben Marc and pianist Robert Glasper –– a Grammy award-winner whose jazz-bonafides were well …
Bring the Beat Back | A brief history of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival
A highlight of the city's cultural calendar for 40 years
This year marks 40 years since the Jacksonville Jazz Festival first took place. And the only thing that’s changed more than the festival is the music itself. The name has changed, the dates have changed, and the location has changed––multiple times. One thing that’s never changed, though, is the festival’s status as a highlight of the cultural year in Northeast …
Listen | Electro Lounge Radio goes all jazz for Jazz Fest weekend
48 hours of jazz on 89.9 HD4, the WJCT app and streaming online
The JME team has been digging in on jazz in anticipation of this year’s Jacksonville Jazz Festival. Things have changed since ‘81, sure. But the yearly festival continues to mark a week in which Jax feels very much like a jazz city. Truly Jacksonville’s jazz-cup overfloweth this weekend, as WJCT station manager and JME contributor David Luckin has curated 48-hours …
Go | Jazz Fest After Dark broadens the Jacksonville Jazz festivities
All that jazz... and much more!
With the Jacksonville Jazz Fest celebrating its fourth decade with more than a weekend’s worth of main-stage performances and auxiliary programming, another––though relatively new––tradition will commence this week: Jazz Fest After Dark. And while the Jacksonville Jazz Festival certainly leans into eclectic booking by featuring jazz torchbearers like George Benson as well as music icons like percussionist Sheila E. and …
Go | The best concerts in Jax this week
All that (Jacksonville) Jazz (Festival)
Jazz Fest is upon us. And beyond the action of the two Downtown Jacksonville stages, music will be pouring out of venues across the city. There’s a lot going on. Here’s what the JME team has their ears on this week. NOTE: The CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission even …
Just Announced | R&B super-producer Babyface added to Jacksonville Jazz Festival
Singer-songwriter, R&B super-producer and 12-time Grammy winner Babyface will headline the Jacksonville Jazz Festival on Sunday night, October 3. Born Kenneth Brian Edmonds, Babyface get his start as a multi-instrumentalist for prominent funk acts in the late ’70s and ’80s before making his mark as a songwriter and producer working with pop and R&B acts including Bobby Brown, Karyn White …