JazzFest Salutes Count Basie, Les Paul, Django Reinhart, et. al, 6/4-5

Each year since 1976, the New Jersey Jazz Society has presented Jazzfest, one of the best mainstream jazz festivals in the entire metropolitan New York City area. This year is no exception as this popular jazz picnic pays tribute to recent New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees Count Basie and Les Paul, plus Django Reinhart and Woody Herman. Jazzfest will take place on the campus of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey on Saturday, June 5th from Noon to 10:00 p.m. with a free concert on Friday evening, June 4th.

Headlining Jazzfest 2010 will be the great Bucky and John Pizzarelli with the Statesmen of Jazz, featuring Harry Allen, Rebecca Kilgore and Martin Pizzarelli. Also on the bill will be Frank Vignola's Hot Club, Cecil Brooks III CBIII Band, Harry Allen's Four Others, the George Gee Swing Orchestra, the Aaron Weinstein/Joe Cohn Duo, the Madame Pat Tandy Band, and a special solo piano appearance by the legendary Marty Napoleon, who performed with Louis Armstrong for many years.

The music takes place in two venues, the Concert Hall in the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts, and a spacious jazz tent located on the lawn area adjacent to the arts center. As an extra bonus, there will be a variety of vendors offering a wide selection of food, hard to find records, jazz CDs, art and crafts of all kinds.

For those interested in seeing the future of jazz, there will be a concert in the tent at Drew University on Friday June 4 featuring the winners of the three division of the New Jersey high school jazz band competition. This concert is free and will start at 7:00 P.M.

Jazzfest is made possible through the generous support of RXR Realty, Toyota of Morristown, Jazzmobile, WBGO Jazz99FM, Hot House Magazine, the Madison Downtown Development Commission and the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance. The Best Western Morristown Inn is the official festival hotel and offers a special discount room rate for attendees of the festival. The Morristown Inn is located just two miles from Drew University. For reservations, call 973-540-1700.

Drew is on Route 124 (36 Madison Avenue) just a couple miles east of Route 287 in downtown Madison, New Jersey. Tickets for Jazzfest are only $50.00 when purchased by June 3rd, and $65.00 at the gate. Students are only $10.00 and kids 16 and under are admitted free. For more information on tickets and directions visit the New Jersey Jazz Society website (http://www.njjs.org/) or call the NJJS Hotline at 800-303-NJJS (6557).

 

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