Berklee – Salem Main Streets

Salem Jazz & Soul Presents Berklee Yellowjackets in Salem

Salem Event, Salem Festivals No Responses »

May 072015

Weekends rate highly on the Salem Ma diversity meter. Pick any Saturday or Sunday and there is ALWAYS something going on— and usually different from the previous week. Music or Art or Theatre or Film. For example, The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival launches its 2015 SJSF/Berklee Summer Series with a concert featuring The Yellowjackets, a band made up of current Berklee College of Music students, this Saturday, May 9, in Derby Square, Salem ( Rain location: Opus, 87 Washington St., Salem).

The Berklee Yellowjackets Ensemble is a high-level student band led by professor Dave Weigert (playing drums). What makes this performance especially interesting is that this ensemble learns and plays the repertoire of the world-renowned Yellowjackets, one of the few jazz bands that has been together for more than 30 years. Those are big musical footsteps to keep time with!

According to the SJSF “The selected Yellowjackets repertoire that will be played is funk-oriented and groove-based, with beautiful, soaring and expressive melodies and rich harmonies. Audience members will be treated to an uplifting and inspiring performance.”

And, the concert is free.

The students are bassist Elin Margareta Sandberg (Sweden), tenor and alto saxophonist Andrew Denicola (Stamford, Conn.), guitarist Lior Tzemach (Ramat Gan, Israel) and piano synth player Zak Leever (San Francisco).

The free show will take place from 5 to 7 pm. and will feature an educational interview about music and the Berklee experience.

The Lobster Shanty restaurant will sponsor the performance. For more information, visit salemjazzsoul.org.

Three more SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concerts will take place this year: Marika Galea on June 13; Beneil Miller on July 11; and Chuks Okpu on Aug. 8.

The ninth-annual Salem Jazz and Soul Festival will follow during the weekend of Aug. 15-16, featuring 10 bands, a kids’ tent, music-education tent, artisan fair and 21-plus beer pavilion. There is no admission charge for the two-day concert.

The festival is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that produces free concerts and raises money for music education causes on the North Shore.

Music to Our Ears: City of Salem Jazz Appreciation Day

Salem Event, Salem Festivals No Responses »

Apr 012015

Providing talented students with an opportunity to perform musically at no cost to the public is the high note for the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival organization. And no where is that so obvious than during the City of Salem Jazz Appreciation Day, April 4 from 2-4 pm.

Performing this year will be the North Shore Jazz Project All Stars, a big band composed of the North Shore’s premier high school-aged jazz musicians, directed by professional saxophonist Mike Tucker.

Larry Claflin Jr., the festival’s executive director offers some extra insight, “The NSJP All Stars played our main festival last year, and the crowd was blown away by their talent, so we thought we’d invite them back to be featured at Jazz Appreciation Day.”

The event, which kicks off Jazz Appreciation month, is produced in partnership with the City of Salem. Salem Five, a major festival sponsor, has donated the performing space in the Salem Five Community Room at 210 Essex Street on the Walking Mall.

The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival is a nonprofit organization that produces free concerts and raises money to support music-education programs on Massachusetts’ North Shore. The season lasts May through August – when SJSF puts on monthly, free concerts in partnership with Berklee College of Music – and culminates in a two-day festival at the Salem Willows in mid-August, featuring local, regional and national bands.

The SJSF/Berklee Summer Series at Derby Square, Salem, with Berklee College of Music student bands, on May 9, June 13, July 11, and Aug. 8.
The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival, a two-day concert at the Salem Willows, with 10 bands, a music-education tent, kids tent, 21-plus beer garden and artisans selling hand-made goods, Aug. 15-16.

Since 2007, SJSF has raised $50,000 for music-education causes north of Boston.

Show your support for young musicians, and be entertained at the same time. A Salem Saturday well-spent, and at no cost!

For more info visit salemjazzsoul.org.