Herbie Hancock, Masego and other dazzling headliners at this year’s Atlanta Jazz Festival – WABE

One of many longest-running free music festivals, the Atlanta Jazz Competition, is again in particular person with an unimaginable lineup. The three-day pageant takes place at Piedmont Park over Memorial Day weekend. Headliners embody the jazz large Herbie Hancock, rising saxophone star Masego and a few of Atlanta’s nice jazz artists. To speak extra in regards to the lineup, “Metropolis Lights” host Lois Reitzes was joined by way of Zoom by Camille Russell Love, govt director of the Mayor’s Workplace of Cultural Affairs, and Atlanta-based jazz pianist Joe Alterman, who will carry out on the pageant. 

The Atlanta Jazz Competition has a repute for securing dazzling worldwide headliners, but it surely at all times throws some love again to its native music scene. “We at all times look to see if there are legends like Mr. Hancock who can be found and keen to come back and current at our pageant,” stated Love, “After which we attempt to create a mixture of what I might think about to be rising jazz musicians who’ve a nationwide repute … We don’t need to look very removed from Atlanta.” Lots of the acts are Atlanta-based or -born, like saxophonist Kebbi Williams and vocalists Kathleen Bertrand and Julie Dexter. Although now based mostly in Los Angeles, one other Georgia native on the invoice is Naia Izumi, whose 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Live performance endeared her to a worldwide jazz and soul-loving viewers. 

Venturing additional afield, the Atlanta Jazz Competition will herald New Orleans-based husband-and-wife staff The Baylor Mission, in addition to the Paris-born, Chicago-transplanted, self-described “beat scientist” Makaya McCraven. On Saturday, Puerto Rican jazz piano legend Eddie Palmieri brings his mix of salsa and Afro-Caribbean jazz to the stage with a seven-piece backing ensemble. 

Native luminary Joe Alterman expressed his pleasure at becoming a member of the pageant lineup, saying, “After I lived in New York, folks would speak in regards to the Atlanta Jazz Competition, and it’s one thing I’m actually happy with that exists in Atlanta. And it’s simply an honor to attend it and a particular honor to be part of it.” He’ll be performing a number of authentic compositions and a few choices by his jazz heroes and mates, like Les McCann and Ramsey Lewis. 

There are a few notable variations about this yr’s pageant, as Love defined. “We’re increasing the pageant to 3 days as an alternative of two days, and we’re additionally concentrating all the performances on one stage. We have now heard up to now that having loads of performers was nice, however folks have been dropping time and never with the ability to see performances as a result of they have been navigating from one stage to the opposite.” This yr’s beneficiant three days on one stage drawback nips the issue neatly within the bud, and audiences can experience one unified expertise with out scrambling to see all of it. 

The pageant stays, as at all times, free and open to the general public. Love spoke about new Mayor Andre Dickens’ dedication to the custom, saying, “Considered one of our workplace’s principal aims is to ensure that Atlantans have entry to high-quality cultural experiences, and preserving the Atlanta Jazz Competition that means supplies entry, democratic entry, for anybody and everybody who desires to come back.”

Along with the principle stage occasions, the Mayor’s Workplace is working with MARTA and several other different native venues to current “31 Days of Jazz,” a month-long celebration that started Could 1. It culminates within the official pageant performances on Could 28-30 at Piedmont Park. Extra details about the Atlanta Jazz Competition and this month’s reside occasions throughout town might be discovered at atljazzfest.com.