MAY 2023 | A SPECIAL SECTION
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One of the largest free jazz festivals in the country, the Atlanta Jazz Festival is an annual celebration of music, culture, and the art of jazz. The festival returns to historic Piedmont Park, in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, from Saturday, May 27 through Monday, May 29 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day. Attendees will enjoy music featuring local, national, and international artists.
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2023 Atlanta Jazz Festival
The festival is free and open to the public. While enjoying the live jazz, festivalgoers will also find a kidzone with games and interactive play as well as shopping and food vendors. No grilling, pets, tents, or glass containers are allowed in the park during the festival. Due to limited parking, organizers encourage concertogers to take public transportation or use the free bike valet located on 10th Street near Park Tavern. No parking will be allowed in the neighborhoods surrounding the park.
Piedmont Park Schedule
Saturday | May 27
1 PM Lakecia Benjamin – jazz, funk, and R&B saxophonist
3 PM Tony Hightower – vocalist
5 PM David Sanchez – Latin jazz saxophonist
7 PM Samara Joy – vocalist
9 PM Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
Late-Night Jazz Concert featuring singer/songwriter Cecily will take place at Park Tavern at 10 pm. This is a ticketed event, and reservations can be made on the festival website.
Sunday | May 28
1 PM Sélène Saint-Aimé – afro-French bassist and vocalist
3 PM Brandee Younger – contemporary jazz, soul, and funk harpist
5 PM Javon Jackson and the Gospel according to Nikki Giovanni – poet and saxophonist
7 PM José James – hip-hop infused jazz vocalist
9 PM Stanley Clarke N 4 Ever – jazz fusion bassist
Monday | May 29
1 PM Satya – singer/songwriter
3 PM James Francies Trio – pop influenced jazz
5 PM Brenda Nicole Moorer – singer/songwriter
7 PM Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott) –trumpeter and jazz innovator
9 PM Ledisi – R&B and jazz vocalist
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Ledisi
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
HENSE creates 2023 festival artwork
Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, created this year’s festival artwork. An American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid, and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces, Brewer utilizes unique color and composition in his installations to evoke a bold presence in the varied spaces they inhabit.
Brewer, a native of Atlanta, began his career painting and writing on the walls around the city at a young age. He discovered his love for creating art in public spaces through graffiti in the 1990’s. He produces numerous public works worldwide through a combination of techniques learned through graffiti writing and the formal language of abstract painting.
He has received recognition as a contemporary abstract painter, exploring, color, form, and material. His works in the realm of public art have garnered him national and international attention. He has also received numerous notable commissions internationally and throughout the United States.
Brewer’s largest commissioned work is in Lima, Peru amassing an impressive size of 137 feet tall and 170 feet wide. With the ability to transform a gallery space or city’s landscape, Brewer’s paintings can act as a unifying thread in a community. Brewer is always inspired by creative expression and process in the public realm and creates works that play an important role in the visual interactions and dialogue of a community.
MAY 2023 | 27 RoughDraftAtlanta.com DIRECT: 404 787 2253 | OFFICE: 404 541 3500 F R A N K B R O C K W A Y WWW BROCKWAYREALESTATE NET N a n c y G r i e v e , S e n i o r L o a n O f f i c e r N M L S # 5 5 2 5 7 1 | G A # 3 5 9 6 9 | C o r p N M L S # 1 6 1 6 5 3 4 A l l i n f o r m a t o n d e e m e d r e l a b l e b u t n o t g u a r a n t e e d E q u a l O p p o r t u n i t y H o u s n g P r o v d e r E a c h o f f i c e i s n d e p e n d e n t l y o w n e d a n d o p e r a t e d ( 7 7 0 ) 3 0 9 3 7 4 5 n a n c y g r i e v e @ s h e l t e r m o r t g a g e c o m w w w n a n c y g r i e v e l o a n s c o m 200+ FIVE STAR REVIEWS 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Scan the QR code for more festival information.
‘The Blues and Its People’ concert kicks off festival May 26
The Apollo Theater’s production of “The Blues and Its People” celebrates the 60th anniversary of “Blues People: Negro Music in White America” by Amiri Baraka. The concert sold out in New York and now it’s coming to Atlanta to kick off the Atlanta Jazz Festival.
The evening will feature Blues, Jazz, and Gospel music performed by Russell Gunn and the 24-piece Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra with special guests including Weedie Braimah, Miles Griffith, Jazzmeia Horn, jessica Care moore, Leon Timbo, Warren Wolf, and narrated by Amber Iman.
The concert at Atlanta Symphony Hall
The VIP Experience
Music lovers are encouraged to join the Atlanta Jazz Festival Society, which offers VIP access to the weekend of music.
A membership for two costs $1,500 and includes two VIP festival passes for all three days of the festival, including access to the VIP Lounge with food and beverages, seating in the VIP area to view performances, and private restrooms.
Other perks of the membership include parking passes for all three days, a gift bag of festival souvenirs, a framed poster of this
year’s AJF artwork, and two tickets to the Russell Gunn concert at Symphony Hall on May 26.
Individual Day Passes are $350 per person and include a one-day pass to the festival, access to the VIP Lounge, seating in the VIP area to view performances, and private restrooms.
Visit atlantajazzfest.com for more information.
on Friday, May 26, at 8 p.m. To reserve tickets, visit atlantajazzfest.com.
Commissioned by The Apollo Theater, “The Blues and Its People” is composed and Music directed by Gunn and developed by Leatrice Ellzy, with projection design by Zavier Taylor, and lighting design by CJ Pierce.
“I saw the concert
at The Apollo, and it was a profound and uplifting experience,” states Camille Russell Love, Executive Director of the City of Atlanta - Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. “It’s the perfect way to kick off the Atlanta Jazz Festival weekend.”
Poet, novelist, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka was also a noted writer of music criticism. His classic history “Blues People: Negro Music in White America” (1963) traces Black music from slavery to contemporary jazz. “Where the music goes that’s where the people go. The music reflects the people,” Baraka said.
Singer, songwriter Cecily featured at Late-Night Jazz Concert
at 10 p.m. Tickets for this special show are available via atlantajazzfest.com.
In Cecily’s songs, you’ll hear the influence of growing up surrounded by her parents’ vast record collection. Her father, a lover of Miles Davis, and her mother, a Smokey Robinson fan, filled their home with soulful sounds that captivated their daughter, and which she has channeled into her own work. This influence gives her work a unique sensuality that informs not only her vocal approach, but also her self-reflecting lyrics, grappling with self-acceptance, vulnerability, and rebirth. Soulbounce says that Cecily creates “music that pulls from the past but looks toward the future.”
Cecily’s 2019 release exploring unconditional love, “Awakening Pt. 1” landed her first SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year, a 2020 Indie Soul Music Award for Best Female Artist of the Year, and a 2020 Wammie Award for Best Soul Song for her single, “Clumsy,” which BET.com praised for its “gorgeously sultry vocals.” The project was also named “Best New Soul on Bandcamp” by Chaka Grier of the Bandcamp editorial team, who praised her ability to blend “top-notch songwriting and thoughtful self-reflection with a gentle jazzinfluenced sound.”
DC-based vocalist and songwriter Cecily, (pronounced ses-suh-lee), is known for her agile soprano and honest lyrics. Her sound, as soothing as it is rich, is rooted in a deep appreciation for mid-century soul and
jazz, 90’s R&B, and re-imagined folk music. Cecily will bring that sound to the Atlanta Jazz Festival on May 27 as part of a special Late- Night Jazz Concert at Park Tavern, adjacent to Piedmont Park, starting
Her debut album “Songs of Love and Freedom” garnered her a 2019 Wammie Award for Best Soul Album and was named Best New Soul on Bandcamp by the Bandcamp editorial team, who described the project as “stirringly timeless and modern.”
“Awakening Pt.II,” Cecily’s eagerly anticipated continuation of the critically acclaimed “Awakening Pt. 1” is set to be released in Spring 2023. The album interweaves Cecily’s life experiences with inspiration from the book “All About Love” by Black feminist writer bell hooks.
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Russell Gunn
Cecily
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Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
MAY 27-29
PRESENTS AN APOLLO PRODUCTION OF THE BLUES AND ITS PEOPLE Celebrating 60 Years of Amiri Baraka’s Blues People WITH RUSSELL GUNN FEATURING WEEDIE BRAIMAH, WARREN WOLF, JAZZMEIA HORN AND MORE ATLJazzFest.com Tickets available at Ticketmaster F R I D A Y MAY 26 8pm 4 6 t h A N N U A L A T L A N T A J A Z Z F E S T I V A L M E M O R I A L D A Y W E E K E N D
Stanley Clarke 4 Ever Ledisi
ATLANTA JAZZ FESTIVAL
