Berkshire Jazz Showcase

When

08/25/2018    
12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Where

Pittsfield Common, parking in First Street lot and area
First Street, Pittsfield, MA, 01201

Event Type

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The first annual
Berkshire Jazz Showcase
Jazz, blues and improvisational music, featuring Berkshire musicians
Aug. 25, 2018, the Pittsfield Common

1-6pm. Free!

Berkshire County has a long-standing reputation as a hot-bed of jazz talent, going back nearly 75 years to Music Inn, and now being revived throughout the region. Dozens of world-class musicians, many of whom could easily establish careers in jazz havens like New York, Chicago, New Orleans or San Francisco, live here because this is where they want to be. You can find them in clubs and lounges on many weekends, but rarely on a main stage, especially those from the more rural areas.

The performing arts represent the heart of the Berkshires. And yet, despite signature jazz festivals that feature “headline” talent during the shoulder season (e.g., the Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend and Pittsfield CityJAZZ Festival), there is no main-stage jazz event during the high tourist season –and none at all that showcases the rich variety of talent in the region.

As a county-wide organization whose mission includes promoting the local jazz scene, Berkshires Jazz addresses this longstanding oversight by showcasing a panoply of the highest-quality regional jazz artists in a one-day outdoors festival at the Pittsfield Common. Free to the public, the Berkshire Jazz Showcase (noon-6pm, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018) will include 65 bands, food vendors, a beer and wine garden, and the adjacent playground and “splash park”.

Performers include: Gruppo Mondo; Andy Kelly’s Gypsy Jazz; Ben Kohn Trio; Jason Ennis and friends; Lucky 5.

Bring your blanket or lawn chair and hear some of the finest jazz talent you’ll hear anywhere! And, it’s free.