Date and Time
September 8, 2012, 1 - 7 p.m. Performers to Be Announced
Festival Location
Gateway Park
N. Lynn Street and Lee Highway
Rosslyn, Virginia
(just two blocks from the Rosslyn Blue and Orange Line Metro Station)
Parking is available for $5 at Atlantic Parking Garage, 1911 N. Fort Myer Drive, entrance along N. Moore Street
Rosslyn Events Line: (703) 2-Rosslyn
2011 Performers
- AL WILLIAMS QUARTET with guest vocalist Juanita Williams - A native of Philadelphia, Al toured and recorded five albums with the late Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria, appearing on the Grammy-winning album “Amanacer.” An original member of Stanley Clarke’s School Days Band, they recorded three groundbreaking albums, “Modern Man,” “I Want to Play for You,” and “Stanley Clarke Live, '76, '77.” Al has three recordings as leader: Never Too Late (1997), See for Yourself (2003), and Heart Song (2008). Grammy-nominated for her debut CD, JUANITA WILLIAMS wowed audiences worldwide in her 15 year tenure with the U.S. Air Forces Airman of Note. Her performing credits include the Montreaux Jazz Festival, The White House, Blues Alley and The House of Blues.
- GRACE KELLY - The 18 year old was named the youngest “Alto Saxophonist Rising Star" ever in the 57th Annual Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll. Kelly, who performed at the 2008 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, received her third ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award (her third in past four years). Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis says, "Grace Kelly plays with intelligence, wit and feeling. She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt that is the hallmark of a first-class jazz musician." So impressed with Kelly's guest appearance at Lincoln Center in November 2008, Marsalis invited her to appear at the Kennedy Center for a Martin Luther King, Jr Day/Presidential Inauguration Eve concert the following January.
- HENRY BUTLER - Eight-time W.C. Handy “Best Blues Instrumentalist - Piano” award nominee. Although blinded by glaucoma since birth, Butler is also a world class photographer who has exhibited nationally. Playing piano since age six, Butler combines the percussive jazz piano playing of McCoy Tyner and the New Orleans style playing of Professor Longhair. Through his classically trained wizardry, Butler continues to craft a sound uniquely his own. A rich amalgam of jazz, Caribbean, classical, pop, blues and R&B influences, his music is as excitingly eclectic as that of his New Orleans birthplace. An accomplished clinician, Butler also started a residential jazz camp at Missouri State School for the Blind, and a program for visually impaired students at the University of New Orleans.
- DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER - The three-time Grammy-winner is in the top tier of today’s jazz vocalists, putting her own unique spin on standards as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. For her latest recording, ELEANORA FAGAN (1915-1959): TO BILLIE WITH LOVE FROM DEE DEE, Bridgewater honors Billie Holiday. Bridgewater made her New York debut in 1970 as the lead vocalist for Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and performing and recording with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Roland Kirk. Her performance in the original Broadway production of The Wiz garnered her a Tony Award. Nick Ashford of Ashford and Simpson, proclaims Dee Dee’s rendition of If You Believe "personified a generation and gave us all hope."
