After an amazing set of events at both large and intimate venues, we look forward to announcing our next activities shortly. Please return for updates on our 2019 programming, including
The 14th annual Pittsfield CityJazz Festival kick off on Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 5-7, with Jazz About Town, featuring regional musicians in restaurants and lounges around Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District. The holiday weekend continues with a brunch on Oct. 7 at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge. Here’s the schedule:
Friday, Oct. 5:
Panchos, 156 North St,
6-9pm: Gary Miller and Ed Green Jazz Duo
Rainbow Restaurant, 109 First St.
7:30pm: Blue Light Trio
Saturday, Oct. 6
Patrick’s Pub, 26 Bank Row
5:30-8pm: Nico Wohl, guitar trio
Panchos, 156 North St.
6-9pm: Dave Bartley, keyboard and vocal
Mission Bar & Tapas, 438 North St.
8-11pm: Mary Ann Palermo and First Take
Hotel On North, 297 North St.
9-11pm: Banulis & Miller Jazz Duo
Sunday, Oct. 7: Jazz Brunch
Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, 444 North St.
10am-2pm (music until noon)
Nico Wohl guitar duo
Monday, Oct. 8, the holiday weekend continues
Mission Bar & Tapas, 438 North St. 8-11pm:
Andy Wrba and Friends
Enjoy the vibe!
For information on the rest of the festival, including headliners Veronica Swift and Christian McBride’s New Jawn quartet, plus our jazz prodigy concert, click here.
We are pleased to announce the lineup for the 14th annual Pittsfield CityJAZZ Festival, Oct. 5-14, a cultural highlight of the Fall Foliage season in western New England. Highlights include the annual “jazz crawl,” a jazz prodigy concert; headline performances featuring Veronica Swift (Oct. 12) and Christian McBride’s New Jawn quartet (Oct. 13); jazz brunches, and more. Box office activity is heavy for both of the ticketed events.
The events all take place within the Upstreet Cultural District, Pittsfield, Massachusetts’ downtown corridor that is rich with visual and performing arts activities, restaurants, lounges, and other cultural attractions.
Things kicked-off on Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 5-7, with Jazz About Town, the annual jazz crawl featuring local musicians in restaurants and lounges. The holiday weekend continued with a brunch on Oct. 7 at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, featuring Nico Wohl and Andy Wrba.
Festival activities resumed mid-week with the Jazz Prodigy concert, on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 7pm, at the Berkshire Athenaeum. The free concert, sponsored by the Friends of the Athenaeum, introduced the remarkable bassist Gabriel Severn to Berkshires audiences. He was backed by Eugene Uman, piano, and Conor Meehan, drums. Snippts are appearing on Facebook…check them out.
The fast-rising vocalist Veronica Swift opens headline weekend on Friday, Oct. 12, with the Berkshires Jazz All-Star Trio in a dinner/concert at Legion Hall, 41 Wendell Ave. Tickets are $25 for the concert, which starts at 8pm (optional Italian dinner is $17, including tax and gratuity (dinner available starting at 6:30). Cash bar will be available. Tickets are available here.
Christian McBride’s New Jawn quartet caps the festival in a 7:30pm concert at The Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street. The Berkshires Jazz Youth Ensemble, a curated big band comprising students from Herberg and Reid Middle Schools, will open for McBride. Tickets are $25 and $38.
The festival concludes with a jazz brunch on Sunday, Oct. 14. Ticket information and the online box office can be found at www.BerkshiresJazz.org.
About the artists
Award-winning 13-year-old electric bassist Gabriel Severn began playing at age 7, but was already drawn to the bass by age 2. As a toddler, he’d point the bass out at performances and festivals while watching his dad play. It was then that he developed an ear for Jaco Pastorius’ music, and loved listening to bands such as the Yellowjackets and Weather Report during car rides.
In 2012, at age 7, Gabriel began private lessons, and 4 months later joined his first band. He received international recognition when his video performing Jaco’s solo on Havana at age 11 went viral, setting the wheels in motion for a possible professional career. He has won a Down Beat Magazine award for student composition. He will appear with local musicians Eugene Uman on piano and Conor Meehan on drums.
At age 24, Veronica Swift is being recognized as one of the top young jazz singers on the scene. She performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center at age 11, as part of the “Women in Jazz” series at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. She won second place at the 
prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 2015, and her album from that same year, “Lonely Woman,” features some of the hottest young jazz players on the scene including Emmet Cohen, Benny Bennack III, Daryl Johns (with whom she shared the Grammy Choir/Band experience), Matt Wigler, and Scott Lowrie.
She moved to New York City in 2016 and almost immediately started performing every Saturday night at the legendary Birdland Jazz Club, a gig she continues to maintain when she isn’t on the road. Earlier this year, she appeared in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s reprisal of the famous Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall concert.
In addition to performing the Great American Songbook and bebop and vocalese classics, Swift is also a passionate devotee of 20s and 30s music. Last year at this time, she was on tour with Chris Botti in California. Here in Pittsfield, she will appear with the Berkshires Jazz All-Star Trio: Benny Kohn, piano; Mary Ann McSweeney, bass; and Conor Meehan, drums.
Six-time GRAMMY-winning jazz bassist Christian McBride has been likened to a force of nature, fusing the fire and fury of a virtuoso with the depth and grounding of a seasoned journeyman. Powered by a relentless energy and a boundless love of swing, McBride’s path has described a continuous positive arc since his arrival on the scene. With a career now blazing into its third decade, and recordings as both a sideman and leader numbering more than 300, the Philadelphia native has become one of the most requested, most recorded, and most respected figures in the music world today.
The consummate jazz educator and evangelist, McBride often leads the ensemble at Jazz House Kids in Newark, NJ, and is the voice of the syndicated NPR program “Jazz Night In America,” and hosts his own show on Sirius/XM. In 2016, he was 
named creative director of the Newport Jazz Festival. His New Jawn Quartet comprises Josh Evans, trumpet; Marcus Strickland, saxophone; McBride, bass; and Nasheet Waits, drums. Their first CD, “Christian McBride’s New Jawn,” will be released in October, shortly after the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival.
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The festival is made possible thanks to sponsorships from the Feigenbaum Foundation, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and private donations.
Click here for our online box office for Veronica Swift’s concert on Oct. 12. The Colonial Theatre is also selling tickets for Christian McBride (Oct. 13) online (click here). You can also order them by phone at 413-997-4444 (saving the transaction fee vs. ordering online), and at The Colonial Theatre’s walkup box office at 111 South Street, Pittsfield, during regular operating hours.
See you there!
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.
This is somewhat ironic. The performing arts represent the heart of the Berkshires; the area is swarming with creativity. And yet, despite signature jazz festivals that feature headline talent during the shoulder season (e.g., the Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend each June, and Pittsfield CityJAZZ Festival in October), there is no main-stage jazz event during the high tourist season –and none at all that showcases the rich variety of local talent who call the Berkshires home.
That all changes on August 25.
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 first annual Berkshire Jazz Showcase (1-6pm, Saturday, Aug. 25) will include 5 bands, food vendors, a beer and wine garden, and the adjacent playground and “splash park”.
Come and enjoy a wide-ranging jazz extravaganza, with:
Gruppo Mondo
Andy Kelly Gypsy Jazz
Ben Kohn Trio
Jason Ennis and Friends
Lucky 5
And, it’s free!
Watch this space for updates.
Bring blankets or chairs. And, come early, the Pittsfield Farmer’s Market will be in full swing until 1pm.
As hot as jazz gets, the internationally renowned Laroo/Byrd Quartet makes its Berkshires debut on Saturday, July 14 with a dinner show at our newest popular venue, American Legion Hall. An optional dinner buffet makes for a complete evening’s entertainment. Dinner starts at 6:30pm; show at 7:30. Tickets are on sale now, click here for details.
Having appeared here in Pittsfield as part of the Latin Jazz Trio some 10 years ago, the monster pianist Warren Byrd returns in a new quartet configuration with his wife, the trumpeter and saxophonist Saskia Laroo. The Laroo/Byrd Quartet (or “4tet,” as it is often called) is the transmutation from their popular duo configuration into a full band with added bass (Rick Rozie) and drums (Jocelyn Pleasant).
Hailing from Hartford, Connecticut, Warren Byrd is a pianist/vocalist with a long list of international credits
, tours, and celebrated work. Though earning a full scholarship for a voice major at Hartt College of Music, he chose to focus on jazz piano and composition, emerging primarily self-taught. His work is a testament to his gifts: freelancing with such notables as Archie Shepp and Eddie Henderson to leading Gospel choirs to composing for theatre and dance. He is co-founder/leader of Duo Laroo/Byrd and the Afro-Semitic Experience, performs as a freelancer, with Saskia’s other groups, as a solo pianist and with his own Byrdspeak Ensemble.
A native of Amsterdam, Saskia Laroo is a premiere figure in music and one of the finest female trumpet players in the world. She began playing trumpet at age 8, and as a teen picked-up cello and guitar. Though first enrolling as a Mathematics major in college, she switched to music, graduating from the Muziekacademie of Hilversum. Versatility has propelled her illustrious career, from barnstorming with Latin, jazz and pop bands, to collaborations with legends such as Hans Dulfer and Teddy Edwards. She released her first CD, “It’s Like Jazz” in 1994 under her own label Laroo Records. Since, she has produced seven CDs and a DVD varying from classic jazz to Club-influenced acid jazz fusion. She has performed worldwide in hundreds of settings.
Concert tickets are $25 in advance, $30 on the day of the event. The optional dinner buffet is highlighted by Brenda Torchio’s renowned chicken picatta. $17, including tax and tip, but please make your reservations in advance.
“Headline weekend” for the Berkshires Gateway Jazz Weekend kicks off with the Frank Vignola Trio (7:30pm, Lee Congregational Church). Frank is one of the most extraordinary (and popular) guitarists performing before the public today. His virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Donald Fagen, Wynton Marsalis, Tommy Emmanuel, the Boston Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Frank to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List”. The New York Times deemed him “one of the brightest stars of the guitar”.
It’s great to welcome him back to the Berkshires, where he has performed at two Pittsfield CityJazz Festivals, to great critical and popular acclaim. His trio includes co-guitarist Vinny Raniolo and bassist Elias Bailey.
Headline weekend continues on Saturday, June 16 with the Jeff Holmes big band. Click here for details and tickets.
Closing-out the headline performances at this year’s Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend will be the Jeff Holmes Big Band, featuring the amazing vocalist Dawning Holmes. [Click here for tickets, or read on]
Pianist, composer, arranger and trumpeter Jeff Holmes is a nationally published composer/arranger, and a multiple recipient of National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Composition Grants. He has written music for renowned jazz musicians including John Abercrombie, Max Roach, Sheila Jordan, Yusef Lateef, Rufus Reid, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
In addition to the band’s impressive library of big-band standards and originals, this evening’s repertoire will include a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year by musical organizations across the globe. Bernstein’s music touched all genres, from classical to pop, opera to jazz, and Hollywood.
The band features the outstanding vocalist Dawning Holmes, who was first heard in Lee during the 2017 tribute to Buddy Rich. In addition to her work with Jeff’s big band, Dawning has sung in jazz clubs from New York City to London, has guested with both Paul Winter and the UMASS Studio Orchestra/Jazz Ensemble I, and opened for Bob Newhart at the Foxwoods Casino Theatre. She performs pieces made popular by Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Sam Cooke, Amy Winehouse, and is currently working on a project of her own original music and lyrics.
Concert time is 7:30pm, at the Lee Meeting House (Lee Congregational Church). Tickets [click here] are $25 in advance, $30 on the day of the event.
Matt’s music is rooted in a profound love for the early jazz masters. What makes him unique is his application of early jazz piano devices created by Ragtime, Blues and Stride musicians. He pursues a musicianship that fuses traditional elements with modern jazz concepts. In this program, Matt illustrates how various stride players influenced generations of jazz giants.
So, after Pittsfield’s monthly “First Friday Artswalk,” stride over to 41 Wendell Ave. for this special event. An optional Italian buffet will be available from Brenda’s Catering, starting at 6:30pm. Regular seating will be available at 7pm. Cash bar.
A popular participant in Pittsfield’s jazz scene, Matt DeChamplain is an educator and performer, but rarely gets the chance to mix the two professions. A growing interest in jazz in the Berkshires, encouraged by his two previous appearances in a different (vocal) setting, gives him the opportunity to stretch out.
Advance price for tickets is $42 all-inclusive, including the dinner, tax, and tip, or $25 for the concert only. Available online (click here), don’t miss out!
Ted Rosenthal is one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation, actively touring worldwide with his trio, as a soloist, and in various configurations. Winner 
of the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, he has performed with many jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and James Moody.
His interpretation of George Gershwin compositions was captured on the CD “Rhapsody in Gershwin,” which provides the foundation for our “10, by George” concert. In reviewing this album, Kevin Whitehead of NPR said, “Rosenthal gets Gershwin’s sensibility (with) a classical pianist’s reverence for the material and a jazz musician’s way of running off of it.” As for the band, Whitehead adds, “these players really make the Rhapsody their own and make it modern again.” It’s no wonder that this CD reached #1 in jazz album sales at iTunes and Amazon.
A virtuoso interpreter and presenter of jazz and crossover music, Ted has 15 CDs to his name. His trio includes Martin Wind, bass, and Tim Horner, drums.
A wine bar, featuring the products of Berkshires’ own Balderdash Winery, will be available starting at 6:30pm.
This concert is part of downtown Pittsfield’s annual “10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival,” when arts organizations present a variety of concerts, plays, and other performances with a “10” theme.
Our annual jazz crawl, part of the 2017 Pittsfield CityJAZZ Festival. Sub-optimal audio in some instances, but a good sense of the variety of local artists being presented.
Shown here: Andy Kelly Gypsy Jazz (at J. Allen’s). Banulis and Miller jazz duo (Panchos). John Kozinski guitar duo (Patrick’s). Mary Ann Palermo and First Take (The Rainbow). Sarah Clay (Mission).
