This is how Burlington dances to jazz
How do you dance to jazz? The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival fans show us how it’s done. Music by Natalie Cressman and her band playing on Church Street during the 2018 festival.
BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS
The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival continues to make its comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic with plans for its first real mix of indoor and outdoor shows since 2019.
The festival, in its 39th year, will be held June 3-12 at locations throughout Burlington. Details of the schedule were announced Tuesday afternoon.
“Jazz Fest is back again,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference in City Hall Park announcing the schedule. “We shouldn’t take these things for granted.”
The 2020 festival was canceled. Last year’s event took place with a pared-down schedule of almost entirely outdoor performances but carried with it an especially ebullient vibe as many Vermonters emerged into a social life for the first time since the pandemic arrived more than a year earlier.
Only two shows are scheduled for the main stage at the Flynn, the performing-arts center with seating for more than 1,400 patrons. Michael Mwenso, a musician and co-curator of this year’s festival, will join other performers on opening night June 3 for “The Sound of (Black) Music,” which casts the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music” in an Afro-futuristic setting. The festival will see saxophonist Joshua Redman perform on the final night June 12.
Mwenso said at the news conference that this year’s festival will address issues facing women, equity and racism and look at them through the prism of music and its ability to help with healing. But the festival, he said, will also be about celebration.
“This will be a place of fun,” Mwenso said.
Highlights of the schedule include:
The Flynn
8 p.m. Friday, June 3, “The Sound of (Black) Music” performed by musicians including Michael Mwenso, Brianna Thomas, Charenee Wade and Vuyo Sotashe. $10-$50.
7 p.m. Sunday, June 12, saxophone player Joshua Redman. $30-$47.
FlynnSpace
(Each show $25)
8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4, the Brianna Thomas Band, led by the New York-based vocalist.
6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, June 5, Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez performs two shows.
6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, blues musician Bobby Rush delivers two shows of stories and songs.
8:30 p.m. Thursday, June 9, Vuyo Sotashe and Chris Pattishall perform.
6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 11, bass player/vocalist Caylen Bryant presents “Songs of Freedom.”
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Nectar’s
9 p.m. Friday, June 3, St. Louis blues performer Marquise Knox joins the All Night Boogie Band. $12 in advance, $15 day of show.
Shows listed below have free admission:
Waterfront Park
7 p.m. Friday, June 10, the legendary George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic plus Lakecia Benjamin & Soul Squad play an outdoor show.
4 p.m. Saturday, June 11, Michael Mwenso & the Shakes, the Treme Brass Band and The Legendary Ingramettes perform.
Church Street stage
Noon Saturday, June 4, the sax-led Jake Whitesell’s Cannonball Quartet.
2 p.m. Sunday, June 5, the Geoff Kim Organ Trio.
1 p.m. Monday, June 6, school bands return to Church Street, including the Burlington High School band.
1 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, the All State Jazz Ensemble performs.
11 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, a set by the Essex Middle School All-American Flying Submarine Band.
1 p.m. Thursday, June 9, a performance by the Middlebury Union High School Jazz Ensemble.
3 p.m. Friday, June 10, the Winooski Jazz Band plays a show.
6 p.m. Saturday, June 11, the instrumental trio Vorcza returns.
Noon Sunday, June 12, singer-pianist Myra Flynn plays a set.
City Hall Park
7:30 p.m. Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4, the Twilight Concert Series presents vibraphone player Nikara Warren.
12:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, the Vermont Jazz Trio performs.
Noon Sunday, June 12, the Treme Brass Band leads a community procession.
Radio Bean
6 p.m. Saturday, June 4, the Jon Thomas Trio, Jalen Baker and Ruben Fox take the stage.
7 p.m. Monday, June 6, a show by the Sean Mason Quintet.
Vermont Comedy Club
8 p.m. Sunday, June 5, a revived Unknown Blues Band plays at the rebranded-for-the-festival Big Joe’s at the Vermont Comedy Club.
10 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 and Wednesday, June 8, saxophone player Gary Bartz and the Sean Mason Trio perform.
10 p.m. Sunday, June 12, an end-of-the-festival party closes things out.
www.flynnvt.org/Community/Burlington-Discover-Jazz-Festival
This story will be updated.
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
