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The festival's namesake, Jim Burge, is a retired Professor of Music at Hillsborough Community College with BME and Master's degrees at the University of Denver. His experience includes Las Vegas show bands, the Walt Disney World Band, and the Florida Symphony. In addition, he is active as a performer and teacher in the Tampa area and co-conducts the FanFare Winds Band. Burge also hosts Jazz with Jim, a monthly program at the Carrollwood Cultural Center. On Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., Jim Burge and The Jazz Directions (pictured above) will host a unique Jazz with Jim featuring the young performers of the Hillsborough County High School All-Star Jazz Ensemble. Burge hand-selected the performers during the All-County Jazz Event on April 22-23 and invited them to perform with him and the band. On Saturday, April 30, the festivities will continue at 6 p.m. with the Jazz Directions again taking the stage, only this time with guest trumpeter Tom Ziegelhofer. Ziegelhofer has performed with Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Nell Carter, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, and Connie Stevens, to name a few. He has also opened for Miami Sound Machine and Basia. In addition, he was a founding member of Baytown Brass and performed with The Jazz Cellar Underground Orchestra. Next, O Som Do Jazz ("The Sound of Jazz" in Portuguese) with Rio de Janeiro singer Andrea Moraes Manson will join the festivities with samba-jazz, Bossa Nova, Balanco, Baião, and MPB. O Som Do Jazz's sound recaptures the sound, grace, energy, and spirit of 1960s Brazilian music. Their music has been featured on HBO, Fox, and on Chinese and Turkish Bossa Nova compilations. Finally, Burge and the Center will welcome the Carrollwood Jukebox Big Band after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The Carrollwood Jukebox Big Band plays popular hip swivelin', jump jivin', swing dancin', Latin lovin', waltz, and cha-cha steppin', contemporary tunes of the 20th century. The band will put a big band twist on jazz as Burge joins in to close out the evening. Tickets for the entire two-day indoor jazz event are USD 47 for Center members and USD 67 for non-members. Tickets are also available per day, with tickets for Friday, April 29 at USD 13 for Center members and USD 18 for non-members, and tickets for Saturday, April 30 at USD 39 for Center members and USD 54 for non-members. Streaming sponsored by AARP is also available for USD 10 on Friday and USD 30 on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased at the Center, online at carrollwoodcenter.org, or by calling (813) 922-8167. The Carrollwood Cultural Center, located at 4537 Lowell Road in Tampa, is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization with a mission of creating culture through community and community through culture.

To state the obvious, this was a year like no other.For many of us, 2020 was a heartbreaker, a marathon slog, a stress engine — or all of the above. At…

Layqa Nuna Yawar is a global muralist and founder member of Young New Yorkers, an art program that helps teenagers stay out of jail. He explains why he…

Stream of live performance by pianist Julius Rodriguez as part of the Yamaha Concert Series co-presented by WBGO.

WBGO contributing photographer Steven Sussman shares photos from BRIC JazzFest 2024

About Hiromi:
Japan has produced an impressive assemblage of jazz pianists, from Toshiko Akiyoshi and Makoto Ozone. And now, well into the change of the 21st century, the pianist/composer Hiromi is the latest in that line of amazing musicians. Ever since the 2003 release of her debut Telarc CD, Another Mind, Hiromi has electrified audiences and critics east and west, with a creative energy that encompasses and eclipses the boundaries of jazz, classical and pop parameters, taking improvisation and composition to new heights of complexity and sophistication. Her latest album, the vivid solo piano outing Spectrum, offers a dazzling evocation of the vibrant array of colors that imbue her music.
With her 2009 solo debut Place to Be, Hiromi decided to go it alone once a decade in order to capture the ways in which her experiences and personal growth had shaped her sound during the preceding years. Recorded on the eve of her 40th birthday, Spectrum celebrates the maturity and depth that have enriched Hiromi’s composing and playing over the course of her 30s, years in which she’s crisscrossed the globe thrilling audiences and embarked on collaborations wit
About Michel Camilo:
Michel Camilo was born in the Dominican Republic. He graduated from the National Conservatory with a degree of Professorship in Music and at the age of 16 became the youngest member of the National Symphony Orchestra. He moved to New York in 1979 to continue his studies at Mannes and Juilliard School of Music. Since his 1985 Carnegie Hall debut he has become a prominent figure performing regularly at festivals and concert venues throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America and the Caribbean. His extensive discography has been recognized with a Grammy, an Emmy, and four Latin Grammy awards; and he is the recipient of the 2019 Klavier Festival Ruhr’s Festival Prize. Highlights include serving as Jazz Creative Director Chair for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Co-Artistic Director of the 1st Latin-Caribbean Music Festival at the Kennedy Center where he premiered his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, appointed as Artist in Residence at the Vienna Konzerthaus, as well as Music Director of the Heineken Jazz Festival (Dominican Republic). His Rhapsody for Two Pianos and Orchestra (commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra) was premiered by Katia & Marielle Labèque at Royal Festival Hall. In 2009, Mr. Camilo premiered his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No. 2 - Tenerife (commissioned by the Tenerife Auditorium) with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. And in 2017, his Concerto for Jazz Trio & Orchestra, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Leonard Slatkin at Orchestra Hall. He is featured in two award-winning music documentary films: Calle 54 (2001) and Playing Lecuona (2015), and has received grants from Meet the Composer foundation and the New York State Council for the Arts. Mr. Camilo’s honors include Honorary Doctorates from Berklee College of Music (Boston), Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña, UTESA University of Santiago, as well as an Honorary Professorship and Honorary Doctorate from his Alma Mater, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), Dominican Republic. He is a recipient of the Crystal Apple from the Mayor of the City of New York. The Dominican Government has awarded him its highest civilian honors: Silver Great Cross of the Order of Duarte, Sánchez & Mella, Cultural Personality award, and Knight of the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus.

WBGO’s Lee Mergner recommends an assortment of products that any jazz fan would be thrilled to find gift-wrapped under the tree or by a set of candles

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Sexmob performed at the Yamaha studio NYC as part of the WBGO/Yamaha Concert Series hosted by WBGO's Sheila Anderson.

WBGO's Doug Doyle chats with bassist and festival producer Mike Griot and WBGO's Blues reporter Dave Popkin about "The Soul of Burt Bacharach"