2019 Winter JazzFest - New York City Article

2019 Winter JazzFest
Various Venues
For further info and tickets, please visit www.winterjazzfest.com

This long running annual event is self-described as a “marathon,” but it’s more accurately labeled a long-distance smorgasbord, a mega-buffet of all the various styles and subdivisions included under the general umbrella of the term jazz. Now in it’s fourteenth year, the Winter Jazz Fest is centered in multiple venues mostly in the West Village and is timed to coincide with the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters convention (which is mostly at the New York Hilton and other midtown environs). Dozens if not hundreds of bands and artists are all performing within a short walk from each other, and it’s all available for one reasonable price. There’s increasingly a strong political motivation to a lot of the programming (don’t tell me you didn’t see that coming!) but overall it’s a highly equal-opportunity representation of the general state of the music at the start of the year. As always, I plan to spend most of my time at the Hot Jazz Festival Stage (at Public Arts, 215 Chrystie Street on Friday and Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street, on Saturday) but there’s truly Greenwich House ) but there’s something for everyone over the course of both nights.

Some specific recommendations for this year: two very young but highly accomplished singer-songwriters whose work falls safely within the umbrella of “hot jazz,” Hailey Tuck (Friday at Public Arts) and Nellie McKay (Saturday at Greenwich House), the teaming up of two postmodern saxophone icons of very different generations, JD Allen and David Murray (SubCulture on Saturday), the brilliant young trumpeter Bria Skonberg’s Sisterhood of Swing (The Sheen Center on Saturday), bass superstar Christian McBride’s Brother Mister band (SOB’s on Friday), and way too many more to name. My best advice is to invest in both an e-scooter or a pair of roller skates.

for more info, click here.