Nnenna Freelon

Silver Spring Jazz Festival

The Silver Spring Jazz Festival was initiated a year ago with the leadership of Keeter Betts, renowned for his “bluesy, melodic and thick tone and his creative use of string popping and glissando” (DCjazz.com). His six-decade career including a long sting with Ella Fitzgerald. Betts died at his Silver Spring home in early August, and the second Silver Spring Jazz Festival is dedicated to his memory. The festival will be held outdoors in downtown Silver Spring, at Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street. The first event begins at 2 pm, and the Festival Grand Finale Jam Session is scheduled to start at 10:15 pm.

Jazz Ensemble Caravan. The festival kicks off at 2 pm with a showcase of youth jazz ensembles parading through the community, followed by a youth band competition. Wynton Marsalis, a famed jazz educator as well as trumpet virtuoso, will be among the judges, who will award one ensemble the Borders/Jazz Times trophy.

Local keyboard wizard Marcus Johnson will provide a smooth jazz interlude, contrasting with the remainder of the festival’s “straight ahead” line-up. Local jazz fans will be familiar with Johnson, who is heard regularly on WJZW-FM radio.

Carol Sloane is one of the outstanding vocalists in American jazz today, a master of traditional jazz song. Sloane jump-started her singing career with a famed debut performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1961 (promoted by Jon Hendricks). Her career now spans fifty years and she shows no signs of slowing down. Noted famed critic Nat Hentoff in 2004, “With all the talk today about new jazz singers, none comes even close to Carol Sloane. This is what jazz is all about."

Tenor sax veteran Ron Holloway has a resume that includes touring with Dizzy Gillespie’s Quintet and playing with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, Branford Marsalis, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Smith, Aaron Neville, and the Allman Brothers. Described by Ira Gitler (Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz) as “a bear-down-hard-bopper who can blow authentic R&B and croon a ballad with warm, blue feeling," DC area resident Holloway has won over 40 Washington Area Music Awards including twice as Musician of the Year.

Perhaps the most unusual set will be provided by French harmonicist Frederic Yonnet. Blending jazz with R&B, and African, Latin and European rhythms, Yonnet is one of a small number of musicians who have put the harmonica out front as a lead instrument in contemporary jazz. Noted Rhome Anderson (Washingtonpost.com), “Fred has an extraordinary ability for wringing torrents of emotion out of that tiny instrument, the harmonica."

And of course, the headliner is Wynton Marsalis, perhaps the most immediately recognized jazz musician of modern times. The second of six brothers and son of renowned pianist/jazz educator Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis is regarded as one of the world’s top jazz and classical trumpeters, as well as one of the most successful advocates for jazz and jazz education. He has released along list of acclaimed recordings (including the brand new Live at the House of Tribes) and has headed Jazz at Lincoln Center for many years. Underlying his music are the principles of democracy—“The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligence communication,” he says. Asa youngster in New Orleans, young Wynton performed traditional jazz at his church in a band led by Danny Barker. By 14 he had been invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic, and throughout high school he performed with a number of classical orchestras and jazz ensembles. At 17 he was named outstanding brass student at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood—and was the youngest student ever admitted to the program. Enrolling at Julliard in 1978, he was picked to join the Jazz Messengers two years later, and his work with Art Blakey was pivotal in developing his approach to both jazz and bandleading. Marsalis soon was playing with such legends as Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry, and Sonny Rollins.

Over the next two plus decades, Marsalis developed his own series of bands (including small ensembles and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) as well as a series of workshops, master classes, and performances geared toward promoting jazz as a serious art form. Young artists benefiting from his mentorship have included James Carter, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton, Eric Reed, and Eric Lewis. Marsalis has devoted equal time to composition, for both jazz and dance, including commissions for Garth Fagan Dance, Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. In 1995, Marsalis collaborated with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society to compose a string quartet, “At the Octoroon Balls,” and a few years later composed “A Fiddler’s Tale,” a response to Stravinksy’s “A Soldier’s Tale.” His most ambitious work, “All Rise,” was composed for big band, gospel choir, and symphony orchestra and first performed by the New York Philharmonic, Morgan State University Choir, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in December 1999.

Festival sponsors and location. The Silver Spring Jazz Festival is sponsored by Tischer BMW, Courtyard by Marriott, KSI Services, Inc, Chick-fil-A, Ameritech Construction, WJZW-FM radio, Metro, Jazz Times, Borders Books, AFI Silver Theater, Three Keys Music, Gazette Newspapers, and Comcast. The festival takes place a few blocks from the Silver Spring Metro station and attendees are urged to use public transportation as public parking is limited. Bring a chair, blanket, cash for food concessions, and your ears! Information is available at 301-565-7300.