Aug 29, 2023 11:41 AM
Blindfold Test: Christian McBride
Christian McBride turned 51 this May 31 and is still pushing far beyond what many might consider conventional career…
Jazz stars will shine on Miami’s bayfront.
(Photo: Courtesy Bayfront Jazz Festival)The inaugural Bayfront Jazz Festival will take place at Miami’s Bayfront Park with live jazz on April 30 and May 1.
Said to kick off Miami’s “post-COVID recovery calendar,” it will be one of the first major live musical events in the city this year.
The first Miami festival of its scale, the Bayfront fest celebrates current and future giants of jazz with a lineup that includes Roy Ayers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola and Mark Guiliana’s Beat Music. The concerts will host 1,500 people and will respect all COVID-19 sanitary rules of social distancing, according to organizers.
Hosted by Melrose Media, the Bayfront Jazz Festival will take place on UNESCO’s International Jazz Day, intended to raise awareness of the virtues of jazz as an educational tool for empathy, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.
The FPL Solar Amphitheater, where the festival will be housed, is situated in the middle of the Bayfront Park, directly on the oceanfront.
Tickets can be purchased via Ticketmaster. A ticketed livestream video will also be in place online through EluvioLIVE. All payments will be accepted, including crypto currencies, to purchase the live streaming.
A portion of the proceeds from the concert will be given to hospitals fighting COVID-19.
“Artists and audiences crave live music in an outdoor venue, and we had to fight to make that event happen,” said Manuel Molina, managing director of Melrose Media. “We took engagements with the venue and the city to protect our audience with masks, gels and social distancing.”
The Chucho Valdés Quartet and the Roy Ayers Quintet will perform April 30 starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Dee Dee Bridgewater & The Memphis Soulphony willl perform May 1 with Mark Guiliana’s Beat Music and Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymee Nuviola.
For more information, check out bayfrontjazz.com. DB
Christian McBride and writer Ashley Kahn meet for a DownBeat Blindfold Test hosted by New York University’s Jazz Studies program.
Aug 29, 2023 11:41 AM
Christian McBride turned 51 this May 31 and is still pushing far beyond what many might consider conventional career…
Samara Joy brought fans to their feet in the middle of her Newport set!
Aug 8, 2023 3:53 PM
“Something for everybody” was the strategy of the Ed Sullivan Show, the most successful variety show in TV history,…
Ceramic Dog is, from right, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith and Ribot.
Sep 12, 2023 2:03 PM
There’s an unrepentant snarl to Marc Ribot’s voice on twisted tunes like “Subsidiary,” “Soldiers In The Army…
“He was the coolest,” Fortner says of Nat “King” Cole. “Didn’t break a sweat.”
Sep 26, 2023 12:48 PM
Before taking a live Blindfold Test in Indianapolis during the American Pianists Association Awards last April, pianist…
Person’s esthetic took shape in an era when jazz functioned as neighborhood social entertainment and moved with a deep dance groove.
Aug 22, 2023 11:52 AM
When tenor saxophone soul maestro Houston Person talks about his life and career — like the time he was studying at…
