Downtown Jamboree is the grand finale of the Montclair Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 9 and features a jam-packed exciting day of free inspiring live music in Montclair, NJ.
While it's the 14th annual Montclair Jazz Fest, this is just the third year that the all-day event takes to the streets of downtown Montclair to support the vibrant main business district. There will be five downtown stages and 150 food and artisan vendors on a ½ mile stretch of Bloomfield Avenue. There will also be an expanded Family Jazz Discovery Zone.
The artistic director of the Montclair jazz Festival, Jazz House Kids and host of NPR’s Jazz Night in America, eight-time Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Christian McBride joined WBGO's Doug Doyle to talk about the impact the event has had on the community.
Jazz House Kids, led by singer Melissa Walker and her husband Christian McBride, has turned what originally thought to be an end of the summer concert for the students into one of the largest free jazz festivals in the country. McBride says he's thrilled how Montclair has embraced the music tradition.
"Besides the great artists that live there and all the great culture in Montclair, I missed the days of what we call mom and pop shops and I think there's a lot of that in Montclair. There are a lot of small business in Montclair, and the fact that our festival is able to bring them more business that really makes us proud. It truly is a community.
The headliners for the Downtown Jamboree include Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Melanie Charles, Person2Person with Eric Person and Houston Person; Edmar Castañeda; Vince Ector and Christian McBride's New Jawn.
"It's hard to express just how special all these performers are to me. Being an artist myself, it's very important for me that the artists that come and play our festival feel comfortable and are being cared for and not simply being treated as a number to help get our numbers up. This is a creation for great artists to perform in front of the people so they can see what great musicians are a part of the community."
You can SEE the entire interview with Christian McBride here.
