The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, New York City’s annual salute to the eponymous late saxophonist, will return in its 31st year for a three-day celebration of live jazz in the neighborhoods near where Parker worked and lived, including Harlem’s historic Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Each year, some of the finest jazz musicians in the world are assembled who reflect “the Bird’s” musical individuality and genius, to promote appreciation for this highly influential and world-renowned artist.
This bill of all-star musicians is led by alto saxophonist and bandleader Charles McPherson, who famously performed with Charles Mingus in the ‘60s and recorded ensemble renditions of Charlie Parker works for the soundtrack to the 1988 Parker biopic Bird. He performs here with Terell Stafford, a veteran of his quintet and a gifted, versatile trumpet player with an adventurous expression of lyricism. Vincent Herring’s Septet, Something Else!, a new group that draws its name from Cannonball Adderley’s 1958 classic Blue Note LP. The portfolio of music played by “Something Else” includes some of the most iconic toe tapping Soul Jazz Songs ever created from the books of Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Timmons, Horace Silver, Bob James, Pee Wee Ellis, Quincy Jones and many more. Chelsea Baratz’s HERA collective—named after the Olympian queen of the gods—is a unique group of groundbreaking female artists and bandleaders assembled to showcase original works. More than just an ensemble of talented players, each musician that performs with HERA has her own band, her own original music, and her own sound, like featured vocalist and Growing Up Jazz founder Andromeda Turre. Opener Michael Mayo, a student of jazz legends Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, wields a commanding and otherworldly voice that’s taken him around the world and back again.