Diversity of entertainment is what you will find this weekend in Salem Ma. Summer may be ending, but we won’t let it go quietly. No, not “quietly.” The air will be filled and flowing with music. There also will be A LOT to see as the 10thSalem Jazz and Soul Festival is set for today & Sunday, from 11am to 7pm.
Rain or shine, the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival has delivered and will deliver again funk, soul and jazz — live & free of charge to overflow crowds of Salem residents & visitors at our Salem Willows, an area uniquely qualified to be hosting the event, as you will learn during this great SJSF Public Service Announcement produced by Salem Access TV.
Saturday, August 20th
Salem High School Jazz Band
What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?
Austin Torpedoes
BT/ALC BIG BAND
The Nth Power
Sunday, August 21st
North Shore Jazz Project All Stars
Edmar Colon
Jen Kearney
Tim Gearan
Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers
Interested? The full descriptions of these performers are so extensive and so diverse, that they require a page onto themselves.
From beginners to veterans and musical stylists in between, there will be something musically happening throughout these two days of the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival to keep you moving.
The SJSF is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that produces free concerts and raises money for music education causes on the North Shore.
Ten years of down beats, up beats, rhythm and horns will be celebrated this year as the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival kicks off its Berklee Summer Series May 14th in Salem’s Derby Square.
The spacious, open air ambiance of Derby Square lends itself so well to the diverse live funk, soul, blues and jazz music performances scheduled this year.
By offering this series of annual free concerts, concluding with the main festival at the Willows (the third weekend in August), The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival is “recreating and renewing the vibrant jazz scene that began in the early 20th century, when Duke Ellington and other musicians from the Big Band era played at the seaside park.”
May 14th Performers
MIXCLA, a trio consisting of students from the Berklee College of Music, will play at the first SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concert.
MIXCLA is a play on words between mezcla (which means mixture) and mix.
SJSF describes it in this way “It is a merging of cultures hailed from the mountains of Chile, to the traditions of Japan, which driven by the fires of Cuba achieve a truly unique Latin jazz experience.”
Sounds interesting.
MIXCLA is led by composer/pianist and singer Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, with Gerson Esteban Lazo Quiroga on bass and backing vocals, and Takafumi Nikaido on percussion. You would expect that this mixture of cultural spices to cook up the perfect recipe for one of a kind musical experience.
Zahili Gonzalez Zamora, explains, “We are truly excited to be a part of the Salem Jazz & Soul FestivalBerklee Summer Series; it is another opportunity to share our love and passion for music.
We are three individuals from three different parts of the world, yet, we found each other at Berklee and came together as a musical family with one common thing in mind, we love Cuban music.
I am bias of course. But Gerson? All the way from Chile, he pretty much self taught himself music and ended up avidly listening and falling in love with Cuban music. He began transcribing his favorite bass players, especially Alain Perez, a bass virtuoso from Cuba. Then Taka? He has already been to Cuba twice, studied with the Masters of Percussion and actually won a prize in Cuba’s most important Festival Del Tambor.
When I found them, I said to myself, these are my brothers. I cannot let them go. I feel at home when we are playing, and their faces tell me they feel the same, and it gets better and better. So now, I’m just really happy that we get to share what we have with the crowd of the Salem Jazz & Soul Festival.
Plus, we get to represent our school, which is also an honor.”
Three more SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concerts will take place this year: Maddie Jay & the pH Collective on June 11; Selah Poitier on July 9; and RickExpress on Aug. 13.
The 10th-annual Salem Jazz and Soul Festival will follow at The Willows during the weekend of Aug. 20-21, featuring 10 bands, a kids’ tent, music-education tent, artisan fair and 21-plus beer pavilion. The two-day concert is free.
The festival is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that produces free concerts and raises money for music education causes on the North Shore.
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!
Jazz is in the air today and being that the weather is expected to be mostly sunny and pleasant, with temperatures in the low 80s, we invite you to feel the beat in person courtesy of the cool folks at The Salem Jazz and Soul Festival organization.
The SJSF is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that produces free concerts and raises money for music education causes on the North Shore; since 2007, it has raised $45,000 for such music-education causes.
First up, MusicKidz, 10am today at the Salem Public Library. An hour of musical learning and fun for kids in grades 1-5 (and parents too!). Today the program that SJSF will present is all about Native American music! There is no charge for admission
Then the Frotations, a band made up of students from the Berklee College of Music, will play the third SJSF/Berklee Summer Series concert of 2014 in Derby Square, 5-7 p.m. Creative Salem and Social Palates will sponsor the free performance.
Forged in 2011 by singer-songwriter Chris Kazarian and bass player Pedro Ribiero (Pedro Zappa), the Frotations were originally called K.A.Z. — A musical experiment centered around the up-and-coming singer songwriter aimed at bringing all of the world’s people together under one sound. Today the Frotations are a concrete blend of Neo-Soul and Rock ’n’ Roll with a little drop of Hip-Hop.
SJSF’s season lasts May through August – putting on monthly, free concerts in partnership with Berklee College of Music – and culminating in a two-day festival at the Salem Willows in mid-August, featuring local, regional and national bands.
For more information, please visit salemjazzsoul.com or call 978-744-8258.
As a side note, we’d like to mention that the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival needs energetic and ambitious volunteers each year to help with the SJSF/Berklee Summer Series. Set up gear, hand out flyers, sell merchandise, and generally promote the festival They might still be able to use you today. If not today, there is always the Aug. 9th event. Interested? E-mail volunteers@salemjazzsoul.com for more information.
Looking for a fun and rewarding diversion for this Saturday night? Look no further than Downtown Salem, Ma. Specifically 43 Church Street. The location and the establishment where from 9pm to midnight Boston-based rhythm and blues soul singer Jesse Dee will perform.
In support of Dee’s recently released CD, “In my Mind/In my Heart,” Salem-based System Soul will play DJ sets throughout the night. Raffles, hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. Tickets are $20, and proceeds will fund Salem Jazz and Soul Festival’s nonprofit mission of producing free concerts and supporting music education causes on the North Shore.
Something solid to eat, something wet to drink, some cool music and a warm feeling for contributing to a community organization. Can’t beat that for a Saturday night.
Salem Main Streets' mission is the continued revitalization of downtown Salem as a vibrant, year-round, retail, dining and cultural destination through business retention, recruitment, and promotion of the downtown district.
Diversity of entertainment is what you will find this weekend in Salem Ma. Summer may be ending, but we won’t let it go quietly. No, not “quietly.” The air will be filled and flowing with music. There also will be A LOT to see as the 10th Salem Jazz and Soul Festival is set for today & Sunday, from 11am to 7pm.
