GET TICKETS: Generations Series at Arena Stage on Nov 13

By Willard Jenkins, Artistic Director, DC Jazz Festival Last winter I was delighted to be selected as a Jazz Scholar for 2025.  In subsequent weeks leading up to my LOC talk on Wednesday, June 18 – as a pre-concert conversation to that evening’s performance by NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz – I spent some very valuable hours examining some of the LOC’s vast jazz Collections.  Here’s my report from that wonderful experience. As a Jazz Scholar at the Library Of Congress, I eagerly

By Jason Toney On trumpeter and composer Nicholas Payton ’s latest album, TRIUNE , Esperanza Spalding sings: “Jazz is a four-letter word. It’s not either or. It’s this and that and this and that and this and that.” Payton, a native of New Orleans and a GRAMMY Award winner, has dedicated his career to challenging rigid definitions of jazz, often referring to his work as "Black American Music." Spalding, a four-time GRAMMY winner and MacArthur Fellow, is celebrated for her ex

Jazz legends, hometown heroes, and next-gen stars bring the festival to more than a dozen neighborhoods citywide WASHINGTON, DC (July 29,...

By Jason Toney “I feel like, as an artist, the whole point of the platform, other than making music, is to inform. However we do that,...