Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Ehud Asherie, Peter Washington and Willie Jones III.
“When you grow up in Cleveland playing in a Polish polka band, you learn to think on your feet,” says Ken Peplowski,who played his first pro gig when he was in elementary school. “From my first time performing in public, I knew I wanted to play music for a living.”
Anton Kot and the Litchfield Jazz Camp Faculty Quartet with Don Braden, Avery Sharpe, Julian Shore, and Jean Caze
Opening for the fest Mainstage shows at noon is Anton Kot, is a 20-year-old composer, multi Instrumentalist, and award winner on drums, piano and gamelan. He is currently a talent- scholarship awardee at NYU. Anton began his studies at Litchfield Jazz Camp at age 11 and spent summers there until
Beautiful Ballads – Featuring Albert Rivera, Andrew Hadro, Carmen Staaf, Melinda Rose, Richie Barshay, and Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere
Litchfield Jazz Festival will mark its 26th anniversary with a live streamed full day of top flight music from Telefunken Soundstage on Saturday, July 31. The festival will be available to the public free of charge from noon to 6 PM. The lineup begins with a moving and romantic set titled Beautiful
Matt Wilson Quartet with Jeff Lederer, Dave Ballou, and Chris Lightcap
The Matt Wilson Quartet. Wilson has a unique honor at Litchfield. He has appeared in more Litchfield festivals (all but one) and more times in a single festival than any other performer (three). A madly busy first call drummer and leader of several bands of his own including his long-standing
Rufus Reid Trio with Sullivan Fortner and Johnathan Blake
Next up in the Festival lineup is legendary bassist Rufus Reid and his Trio. With a career that spans six decades, Reid appeared on the very first Litchfield Jazz Festival in 1996 and other Litchfield programs over the years. At the keyboard is Sullivan Fortner, 2015 Cole Porter Fellow in
Emmet Cohen & Friends “Future Stride” with Yasushi Nakamura, Joe Saylor, Julian Lee, and Benny Benack III
Bringing home the 26th annual Litchfield Jazz Festival is the outstanding pianist Emmet Cohen in a program featuring works from his award-winning album Future Stride. Cohen, at 30, is one of the few musicians undaunted by the blunt force the pandemic has had on so many of his peers. Instead of folding
Art Blakey Centennial Tribute
Art Blakey built more than a band in 1955. He built an institution that became Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and thrived for 35 years. The first iteration, co-led by Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, included trumpeter Kenny Dorham, bassist Doug Watkins and tenor saxophonist, Hank Mobley. While its
Charlie Parker Centennial Tribute
“To say that Charlie “Yardbird” Parker was one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived is a bit like saying the Mona Lisa is a well-known painting” (J. D. Cosidine, DownBeat). Parker was just 34 when he died in 1955 of a heart attack in the suite of his
Litchfield Legends in the Making
Many of the younger set making waves in the jazz sea these days began their musical journey at Litchfield Jazz Camp and remain on faculty there. Opening the festival is rising-star vocalist Nicole Zuraitis. A 2019 Grammy nominee, she tours internationally, heads our Jazz Camp vocal programs each summer, and
Wycliffe Gordon & Friends
Wycliffe Gordon is a renowned trombonist, composer, conductor, arranger and educator. He was most recently named Best Trombone by the Downbeat Critics Poll 2018, Jazz Journalists Association Trombonist of the year nine times since 2000 and the ASCAP Plus award winner for 2014-17. He has performed with the Wynton Marsalis