Due to COVID-19, all performances will be livestreamed from a music production studio via Facebook, YouTube, Delaware WITN Channel 22 and other broadcast venues

 

33rd Clifford Brown Jazz FestivalWilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and Cultural Affairs Director Tina Betz today said they are pleased to announce that the 33rd Annual Clifford Brown Jazz Festival will be held this year, but due to COVID-19 will be staged as the City’s first virtual jazz festival. The 2020 jazz festival performances will be live-streamed from a local music studio on Thursday, June 25 through Saturday, June 27, with sets beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and at 3 p.m. on Saturday. This year’s festival is comprised of 15 groups featuring 80 local and regional artists.

 “Everyone throughout the City and the world will now have the opportunity to enjoy Wilmington’s premier annual music event which, for years, has proudly been known as the largest FREE jazz festival on the East Coast,” said Mayor Purzycki. “The pandemic will not interrupt a City institution, which will feature the talents of scores of musicians, many of them local music icons. Tina and I are very excited, and we hope you are also.”
 
“We regretted very much having to cancel the Rodney Square staged event, but we have revived it to showcase the talents of our own local musicians, which makes it an even more special event,” said Director Betz.

Longwood Summer Series Jazz

The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is an annual tribute to the late jazz trumpeter and Wilmingtonian Clifford Brown, who was born in 1930 on the east side of the City. Also known as ‘Brownie,’ he died in 1956 at the age of 25 in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, leaving behind only a few years’ worth of recordings. However, Brown’s short life and limited work has had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players such as Arturo Sandoval, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, and Freddie Hubbard. Two of Brown’s compositions, "Joy Spring" and "Daahoud", have become jazz standards.
  
The virtual festival is FREE to enjoy, but donations to Cityfest, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit, are encouraged. A portion of the donations will be used to establish a COVID-19 Relief Fund to help our local musicians affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

2020 Performance Lineup for the 33rd Annual Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
 
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
7 p.m. – Pre-Festival event featuring the Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency Program and graduates

Thursday, June 25, 2020
7 p.m. – Arturo Stable Quartet    
8:10 p.m. – Sharon Sable Quintet      
9:20 p.m. – Cintron                       

Friday, June 26, 2020
7 p.m.  – Gerald Chavis Quintet         
8:05 p.m. – Mike Boone Quartet 
9:10 p.m. – Barbara Walker              
10:15 p.m. – Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead          

Saturday, June 27, 2020
3 p.m.  – Vertical Current                  
4:05 p.m. – “Voices for Healing” with Raye Jones Avery
4:55 p.m. – Terra Soul Project           
6 p.m. – Dennis Fortune                     
7:05 p.m. – The Whitney Project       
8:10 p.m. – Korey Riker Band            
 
9:15 p.m. – Fostina Dixon & the Winds of Change     
10:30 p.m. – Jeff Bradshaw Band      

For more information about the jazz festival, please visit www.cliffordbrownjazzfest.com.