NYC Free: Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Aug. 28/29

Image: NYC SummerStage

All that Jazz. Specifically, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. It’s a weekend of great music and FREE music in Marcus Garvey Park, honoring the music legend, and a traditional summer festival in NYC.

This year the music is in association with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and SummerStage.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Saturday/Sunday, August 28/29.

Here are the rules attending either or both events:

Concerts are 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm. Doors open 5:00 pm
Tickets are no longer required for free performances at SummerStage.
All free performances are first come, first served, with limited capacity, and will continue to follow CDC recommendations.
Visit here for more information.

Update from SummerStage:

In response to the increasing spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, all guests will be required to show either proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative PCR test within the last 72 hours in order to enter.

Learn more about acceptable documentation, mask guidelines, and other safety protocols here.

Here’s where to get a FREE Covid vaccination in NYC.

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Saturday, August 28

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival returns with live outdoor concerts August 2021

Photo: SummerStage

Charlie Parker with Strings

The Donald Harrison Quartet and The Harlem Symphony Orchestra / Shenel Johns

Though his legacy would come to be defined by his indelible contributions to bebop, the Charlie Parker with Strings albums were Charlie Parker’s best-selling recordings during his lifetime, featuring the legendary saxophonist’s takes on standards like Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Klenner & Lewis’ “Just Friends.”

They’re performed here by the Donald Harrison Quartet and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. Harrison, a New Orleans-born alto saxophonist (and former member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), is leading this ensemble in honor of Parker, while the strings come courtesy of the HSO, comprising graduates of the country’s top conservatories and music schools, such as The Julliard School, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University. Harrison, and company will also debut two new works in styles of music he created. The new works showcase his signature Nouveau Swing and Quantum jazz styles which are both heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.

Sunday August 29

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival free concert in Marcus Garvey Park August 2021

Photo: SummerStage

Willie Jones III - A Charlie Parker Centennial Celebration

Featuring Sarah Hanahan, Godwin Louis, Justin Robinson, Erena Terakubo with Donald Vega and Endea Owens / Samara Joy

For the Charlie Parker Centennial, Willie Jones III and Jazz at Lincoln Center have assembled a multi-generational, international band of men and women to represent the global impact that Parker had—and continues to have—on music and the musicians that make it. Jones serves as music director, anchoring the rhythm section on drums.

The rest of the ensemble includes pianist Donald Vega (who plays regularly with the legendary Ron Carter); bassist and Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Endea Owens, the house bassist in Jon Batiste’s Stay Human on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; the alto saxophonists include Justin Robinson (a veteran of Roy Hargrove’s bands), Sapporo, Japan’s Erena Terakubo, a bandleader in her own right with six albums under her belt, and Harlem’s Godwin Louis, who founded the “Experience Ayiti” foundation for multi-disciplinary arts education, and Juilliard masters student Sarah Hanahan.