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WBGO DJ Felix Hernandez kicks off Horizon Foundation Sounds of the City with his famous Rhythm Revue Dance Party. He’ll be spinning classic soul and old-school R&B, from James Brown to Aretha Franklin to Marvin Gaye and more. It’s fun, it’s free and most important of all—it’s funky. So bring your family, your friends and your dancing shoes, and we’ll see you at Chambers Plaza on July 14.

About Horizon Foundation Sounds of the City

Our famous FREE outdoor concert series brings residents together every week in Chambers Plaza. It’s a dance party with a festival atmosphere—and you’re invited! Grab a drink at our outdoor bar. Feast at NJPAC’s NICO Kitchen + Bar or nearby food trucks. Meet, mingle and move to the music.

This dual-headliner bill showcases two pillars of modern jazz, bolstering communities fostering the next generation of jazz greats. Shabaka Hutchings is one of the brightest stars in a London jazz scene that’s stretching the boundaries of the genre. Sons of Kemet is his project with Tom Skinner, Theon Cross, and Eddie Hick; the lineup features two drummers, a tuba, and SummerStage Anywhere alum Hutchings on saxophone and clarinet. Their latest LP Black to the Future unites the African diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic, working with vocalists and rappers from the UK and US, making jazz that encourages political dialogue as much as individual expression.

Drummer, bandleader and recent SummerStage Anywhere alum Makaya McCraven’s take on jazz is viewed through the lens of hip-hop production, deconstructing and reassembling jazz and soul standards with the ear of a crate-digger. His 2020 LP We’re New Again reimagined Gil Scott-Heron’s final album through his own POV. On his latest, this year’s Deciphering the Message, he pilfers the Blue Note catalog for samples like a kid in a candy store, creating a virtual band of jazz legends from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and rising contemporary stars like Junius Paul and Marquis Hill. They’re joined by L’Rain, a Brooklyn-based songwriter and sound artist with a jazz lineage at the forefront of New York’s experimental community, and DJ Lindsey on the decks.

Terence Blanchard isn’t your average jazz musician—the world-renowned trumpet player and festival alum is also a prolific Academy Award-nominated film composer and an exciting new voice in the opera world. For his latest album Absence, his electro-acoustic quintet E-Collective joins forces with violinist David Balakrishnan’s Turtle Island Quartet. Their Charlie Parker Jazz Festival performance will feature works from the Wayne Shorter tribute album, which features five compositions from the legendary saxophonist. They’re joined by the jazz bassist Buster Williams, who has played with a Who’s Who of jazz greats from Mary Lou Williams to Herbie Hancock, and is the subject of the JazzTimes Documentary Film of the Year, Bass to Infinity. Buster will play with his all-star quartet Something More. Vibraphonist Nikara Warren will perform her album Black Wall Street, which melds hip-hop, jazz, neo-soul, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms into an abstract sound-collage that “take pieces of black music and give it a platform to show black musical beauty.” Vuyo Sotashe, a South African jazz vocalist, is making his mark in the New York jazz scene.

This engagement of Buster Williams & Something More is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Archie Shepp and Jason Moran are two avant-garde jazz musicians from different generations that nonetheless share a penchant for pushing the envelope. Shepp is a veteran saxophonist who has been called both a musical firebrand and a cultural radical, standing out even amongst myriad talents in the free jazz generation. Moran is pianist 37 years Shepp’s junior, with an equal respect for tradition and trailblazing. Their 2021 collaboration Let My People Go is a warm and intimate collection of duets recorded live in 2017-2018, a pristine portrait of two masters at work. They’ll be joined by special guest Cécile McLorin Salvant, a once-in-a-generation vocalist known for transformative performances of well-traveled standards. The bill also includes the Grammy-nominated Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, who plays with a ferocious energy and deft musicality; Bria Skonberg, a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader once described by The Wall Street Journal as one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation; and Pasquale Grasso, a master be-bop guitarist known for elevating the instrument through his pianistic approach, showing the influence of Bud Powell and Art Tatum in a revolutionary hard-swinging way.

After opening the SummerStage season in 2021, the renowned jazz ensemble returns with its critically-acclaimed director to this year’s season. Director Wynton Marsalis’s name looms large in the world of jazz, and for good reason— the Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, and bandleader has helped shepherd the cultural institution of jazz into a new millennium. Under his direction, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire: from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others. Since the orchestra’s founding in 1988, the group’s performances have been leaving its global audiences inspired and uplifted with the full vigor, vision, and depth of America’s music. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’s vast, innovative body of original work over the past decade demonstrates the orchestra composers’ and arrangers’ thematic ambitions, distinctive musical personalities, and unprecedented range.

Doors 6PM / Show 8PM or Doors 9:30PM / Show 10:30PM
Set Length Approximate, Billing Subject to Change
https://www.bluenotejazz.com/

Jazz in July artistic director Bill Charlap and his acclaimed trio are one of the leading ensembles in jazz. Joining them as a special guest to kick off this year’s festival is nine-time Grammy nominee Joshua Redman, widely regarded as the greatest jazz saxophonist of his generation, and “one of the 21st century’s finest jazz improvisors” (The Guardian). A dream concert for jazz lovers.

Bill Charlap, piano
Peter Washington, bass
Kenny Washington, drums
Joshua Redman, tenor saxophone

NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron is the premier pianist in jazz today, revered for the lyricism and elegance of his artistry. Grammy Award winner Bill Charlap is hailed for his “deep sense of swing” and “unflagging melodic invention … or re-invention” (Downbeat). Cole Porter Fellowship winner Aaron Diehl is one of his generation’s most acclaimed pianists, noted for his nuanced artistry, intellect and fluency across a wide spectrum of jazz. Three stellar soloists, two pianos on our stage, a jazz piano summit.

Kenny Barron, piano
Bill Charlap, piano
Aaron Diehl, piano
Noriko Ueda, bass
Lewis Nash, drums

The evening also introduces the sensational Samara Joy, winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, and the young vocalist turning heads and ears all over the jazz world. Hear why.

Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone
Warren Wolf, vibraphone
Bill Charlap, piano
David Wong, bass
Carl Allen, drums
Samara Joy, vocals

Two of the most formidable, influential, and inventive artists in jazz meet on our stage, as guitarist Mike Stern joins saxophonist Chris Potter, headlining the final night of the festival.

The evening also introduces rising saxophone star Nicole Glover — newest member of the jazz supergroup ARTEMIS, and a musician The Times (London) called “otherworldly.”

Mike Stern, guitar
Chris Potter, saxophone
Bill Charlap, piano
Bill Stewart, drums
Scott Colley, bass
Nicole Glover, saxophone