Annual West Orange JazzFest - Canceled due to weather

Pleasant Valley Productions

Annual WO JazzFest - Canceled due to weather

Oskar Schindler Center for the Performing Arts

<h3>After a great deal of consideration, we have made the difficult decision to cancel JazzFest 2023 due to the rainy weather forecast for Saturday.</h3><h3>We truly wish we could safely run the event this year, and we thank you for your interest in sharing great Jazz with us. </h3><h3>We hope to see you at JazzFest 2024!</h3><h3>A﻿bout the Event</h3>Pleasant Valley Productions presents the Annual West Orange Jazz Festival at OSPAC. Saturday, October 7th, 1-8 pm at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center located at 4 Boland Drive in West Orange NJ. We welcome you to enjoy world-class entertainers, a beer and wine garden, food vendors, and more. Free parking and indoor restrooms are available. General admission: $10 - bring your own lawn chairPremium Seating: $20 - includes pre-set chair near the stageSpecial group rates are available for groups of 10 or more. For information about group sales, email contact@pleasantvalleyproudctions.org. You can also visit pleasantvalleyproductions.org for tickets<h3>About the Artists</h3>Mecadon McCune TrioMecadon McCune TrioProud to open our festival with 18-year-old “Jazz House&quot; kid, and rising star who has been awarded the $10,000 James Moody Scholarship to study Jazz Performance at Montclair State University. McCune also performed as the Rising Stars opening act at the New Jersey Jazz Society&#x27;s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison, NJ. He will lead his trio with bassist Sam Konin, a Charles Mingus Electric Bass Award winner and Pianist James Bally, a Westfield NJ Musical Club 2020 Scholarship Winner. Come early and catch this “future of jazz” performance. Read more in Jersey Jazz Magazine about Rising Star: Mecadon McCune.Carlos Frias and Circulo SocialWith roots in the Dominican Republic Carlos Frias is a singer songwriter, Visual Artist, Drummer and percussionist and the front man of the world music band, Carlos Frías &amp; Circulo Social. Based out of Bloomfield NJ, we play mostly original music that blends with Rock, Jazz and Latin rhythms. In our music you can hear the heart of the Caribbean, the peasant chant, the voice of those speaking against injustice accompanied by Afro Caribbean rhythms. Carlos, a talented musician, has captivated audiences in Northern NJ at popular venues and towns including South Orange, Newark, Bloomfield amongst others and has captivated audiences at many popular venues including Crossroads, Suzy Ques, Hat City, and Abuja International. He opened the Patterson NJ Jazz Festival, and recently earned the honor of opening for Tito Puente Jr. in Rahway, NJ. Don&#x27;t miss the chance to experience this electrifying performance. Learn more about Carlos Frias and Circulo SocialWinard Harper “Winard Harper was born in Baltimore, a child prodigy. Although his parents were not musicians, they were full of encouragement as they noticed him beating on cans when he was three or four years old. At five years old, Winard would sometimes sit in and play his drums in older brother Danny’s rock ‘n roll band after the family moved to Washington, D.C. When Winard’s younger brother Philip took to playing the trumpet, the two of them would busk in the streets of George Town, jam with a few bands, and help out with Danny’s various bands. Listening to Clifford Brown and Max Roach playing “Jordu&#x27;&#x27; had fascinated Winard so greatly it showed him his direction — jazz. Subsequently, his father took him to all the local jazz scenes to listen and meet the best in the world of jazz.” Modern Drummer describes Winard as “a straight-ahead jazz drummer, Harper has perfected the blend of American jazz music with the sounds of African rhythms. Constantly in reverence of his predecessors while remaining innovative in his own right, Harper has been among the celebrated drummers in jazz for many years. He is a virtuoso on the drum set and the balafon, the West African equivalent of the marimba, he is a sought-after collaborator at home and abroad, a bandleader of his quartet, his quintet, and his exciting band the Jeli Posse. He is an event’s organizer – successfully running the weekly Friday Fish Fry Jazz Jam and the Sunday “Meet the Artist” Series at Moore’s Lounge in Jersey City.”Nat Adderley Jr.This Grammy Nominated Pianist was also a songwriter for 20 years for Luther Vandross in addition to Natalie Cole, Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin, and Doc Powell. Adderley also worked as a keyboardist for R&amp;B singer Valerie Simpson. Nat&#x27;s jazz lineage includes Cornetist Nat Adderley and the legendary Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Jacquie, Mike Lee Family and FriendsTeenager Jacquie Lee. in 2019 at Garfield Middle school, who has been playing Violin for 11 years, received the Jazz Soloist Downbeat Student Music Award for an Outstanding Performance. Jacquie has also been a member of Jazz House Kids and is a member of a family of musicians which has truly helped her hone her musicianship. Mike Lee Sax Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, saxophonist Mike Lee has established himself in the New York City/Northern New Jersey area for many years. He balances a thriving performing career with a distinguished teaching resume. He performs regularly in New York City as a member of a wide array of jazz ensembles. His recent associations include The Jimmy Heath Orchestra, The Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, Wallace Roney’s Universe Orchestra, The Oliver Lake Big Band, The Loston Harris Trio, The Nat Adderley Jr. Quartet, Josh Evans Big Band, Dave Stryker, Frank Lacy, TS Monk, and The Roy Hargrove Big Band. He performs regularly at venues such as The Bluenote, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Smalls, The Jazz Gallery, Fat Cat, and Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlyle Hotel. Recent tours have taken him up and down the East Coast, to Italy, France, California and Beijing, China.Mike Lee is Professor of Jazz Saxophone at The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. In 2009, Lee helped found and develop Jazz House Kid’s in-house jazz education program. As the instructor of the first class (2009) at the Jazz House and Director of the JHK Summer Workshop (2010-2012) he oversaw the growth of the program from one class to a thriving jazz school. Mike’s private students have also excelled in winning national awards from the Grammy Band, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, Downbeat Magazine, and Young Arts. He has had several students go on to attend The Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, William Paterson, Rutgers, Miami University, and Northwestern University. Lee has presented clinics and workshops throughout the country. Mr. Lee is endorsed by Conn-Selmer saxophones and Vandoren mouthpieces/reeds.Lee’s musical accomplishments are shared and enjoyed by his musical family. Along with his wife, Violinist Rebecca Harris-Lee, they are raising three active young musicians. Their oldest son, saxophonist Julian, a graduate of The Juilliard School, has a thriving career in and around New York City having performed with ensembles including the Mingus Big Band, Wynton Marsalis Quintet, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.Ty Stephens Jazz and the SoulJaazzA consummate multi-talented entertainer and performer, Ty Stephens has performed around the world, gaining an international audience with a cool, urban-tinged adult-contemporary sound, based on jazz, funk, and R&amp;B. He has appeared on Broadway in the original productions of Sophisticated Ladies and Marilyn, An American Fable. He has recorded with industry legends Harry Belafonte, Peggi Lee, dance music icon Dan Hartmann, disco pioneer Nile Rogers (Beavis &amp; Butt-Head), master drummer Baba Olatunji, renowned trumpeter Chuck Mangione, singer Gwen McCrae, Def Jam premier artist Alyson Williams, among others.Tribute to Warren Battiste Honor Lifetime AchievementNew Orleans native son Warren Battiste is another one of those unsung heroes in the annals of jazz who deserve more recognition for their contributing efforts to the cause of American music. Warren Battiste was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was taught to play the guitar by his father who was a banjo player at Preservation Hall. He was the first guitarist to play with Fats Domino on a regular basis and went on to play with Illinois Jacquet in New York. In New Orleans, Warren has performed at numerous jazz clubs on Bourbon Street, Preservation Hall, Snug Harbor, the Matador and many others. Warren also appeared in the film Shy People starring Jill Clayburgh and Barbara Hershey. Warren has performed with fellow guitarist George Benson, organist Jimmy McGriff, and accompanied classic vocal groups such as The Platters and The Inkspots to name a few. In 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.Don BradenSaxophonist, flutist, composer and educator, Don Braden’s jazz career spans 40 years. He has toured the world with Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, and others and performed on Saturday Night Live, at Carnegie Hall, Harvard University (where was an engineering undergrad), and countless jazz festivals and clubs. He has over 100 CDs as a sideman and 21 as a leader, the most recent his critically acclaimed Earth Wind and Wonder. Don has written 150 pieces for ensembles from duos to full orchestras, including one for Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and over 100 songs for jazz combos. His compositions appear on dozens of CDs, TV shows and indie films. In 2000, he received a Doris Duke Foundation New Works grant and adjudicates for them and for SURDNA, the Downbeat Student Music Awards, and others. He teaches at Prins Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands and at Montclair State University. He ran NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens for 15 years and led the Harvard University Monday Jazz Band. Don believes that jazz is a great music style to study because it reflects so many important aspects of life, including creativity, discipline, teamwork, leadership, listening skills, democracy, supportiveness, and improvisation. Don has been the music director of the Litchfield Jazz Camp since 1998.

Annual West Orange JazzFest - Canceled due to weather

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Annual West Orange JazzFest - Canceled due to weather

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