Jazzmobile's SUMMERFEST Returns in July With Concerts in All Five Boroughs

New York City’s parks and outdoor spaces come alive with the sound of jazz in the summer, courtesy of Jazzmobile’s 58th annual Summerfest 2023 series, which premieres on stages throughout the city’s five boroughs with an outstanding assemblage of nearly 30 jazz stars and emerging talents from July 5 to September 24. Jazzmobile’s much anticipated return provides audiences with another year of exceptional musical performances that reflect New York City’s dynamic diversity, from straight-ahead, Latin, post-bop, blues, swing stylings and genres and beyond.

Highlights from this summer’s lineup include pianists Arturo O’Farrill, Jason Moran, Orrin Evans and Danny Mixon; trombonists Craig Harris and Wycliffe Gordon; drummers/percussionists Sipho Kunene, Bobby Sanabria, Winard Harper, Darrell Green and Steven Kroon; saxophonists Camille Thurman, Antonio Hart, T.K. Blue, Donald Harrison, and Houston Person; trumpeters Jeremy Pelt; bassist Paul West; and vocalists Tammy McCann, Lezlie Harrison, Antoinette Montague, Allan Harris and Dianne Reeves.

Jazzmobile resumes its longtime Harlem residences at Grant’s Tomb on Wednesdays and at Marcus Garvey Park on Fridays. Summerfest also returns to Central Park for the  annual Great Jazz on the Great Hill in Central Park, presented in partnership with the Central Park Conservancy, featuring vocalist and WBGO-FM announcer Lezlie Harrison as MC with Jeremy Pelt, Wycliffe Gordon and the Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band. In partnership with the City Parks Foundation, Summerfest presents pianist/composer Jason Moran and the Big Bandwagon with James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield at Marcus Garvey Park. In September Jazzmobile returns to Marcus Garvey Park, where there will also be a five-hour concert in partnership with the John Coltrane Festival. Jazzmobile will also celebrate jazz at the Louis Armstrong Museum in Queens and at the Dizzy Gillespie Mural in Harlem. For updates go to www.jazzmobile.org

SUMMERFEST has remained a free concert series thanks, in part, to generous donors such as: The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the William “Billy” Taylor Estate, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Harlem Community Development Corporation, West Harlem Development Corporation, Con Edison, the Kitchings Family Foundation, George and Joyce Wein Foundation, television partner PIX11 and Steinway & Sons.

All SUMMERFEST concerts are free, weather permitting and subject to change. On Wednesday evenings, depending on availability, concerts may be moved to the Interchurch Center 61 Claremont Avenue.