Duke Ellington Jazz Festival
The program has been expanded, and we are pleased that, in addition to the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Jazz Café, new Festival partners include the Library of Congress; the National Gallery of Art; the Inter-American Development Bank; the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the Duke Ellington School of the Arts; the Washington Performing Arts Society; and the embassies of France, Israel and Mexico.
More than 50 performances will be offered at concert venues and clubs throughout the District pf Columbia.
Headline artists include NEA Jazz Masters Roy Haynes; Randy Weston; and Paquito D’Rivera; Dr. John; Roy Hargrove; John Scofield; Mavis Staples; Poncho Sanchez; Luciana Souza; Geri Allen; Janis Siegel; and Wallace Roney. D’Rivera and Hargrove will be the Festival’s Artists-in-Residence.
Dr. Billy Taylor will be presented with the 2nd Duke Ellington Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award at the Festival’s invitational Gala on Wednesday evening, October 4th at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Artists from Cameroon, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Colombia and Argentina will be performing in the Festival’s International Jazz Showcase.
The Festival’s all-day marathon concert on The National Mall will feature Naser Abadey & SuperNova; Poncho Sanchez; Dr. John, Roy Hargrove, and John Scofield, performing the music of Ray Charles, with Special Guest Mavis Staples
Other highlights include an African Ellington tribute; a Family Concert with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra; performing Duke Ellington’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s famed “Nutcracker Suite”; free student concerts with the Mexican marimba ensemble Na’Rimbo, and with South African composer/bassist Victor Masondo & Lalela; a special concert with NEA Jazz Masters Roy Haynes and his quartet, and Paquito D’Rivera & The United Nation Orchestra.
Dr. Billy Taylor will be presented with the 2nd Duke Ellington Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.
For the Festival’s closing program and fundraiser, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club will be “recreated” in the majestic Willard Intercontinental Hotel, replete with an authentic uptown soul food dinner. Renowned theatrical, film, television and musical stage star Avery Brooks will perform along with Paquito D’Rivera and Roy Hargrove as guest artists with The New Washingtonians, conducted by Davey Yarborough.
