Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
The 14th annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival will be held May 14–16 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Dee Dee Bridgewater will host the event, which will also include performances from Esperanza Spalding, Anat Cohen, Janis Siegel, Anne Drummond, Carmen Lundy and the Maria Scheinder Orchestra. Along with ticketed events at the Terrace Theater, the festival will include free performances on the Millennium Stage, including the winners of this year’s Mary Lou Williams Competition, which focused on pianists. Williams’ biographer Tammy Kernodle and pianist and pianist Deanna Witkowski present a program of discussion devoted to the her sacred jazz works.
More info: kennedy-center.org
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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