Jazz at Congo Square Festival Returns this Weekend

NEW ORLEANS (press release) – 

On August 19-21, 2022, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra will host the 2nd Annual Jazz at Congo Square Festival, a FREE celebration of New Orleans music, food, culture, and traditions. Activities begin on Friday, August 19th with a patron party at Gallier Hall from 7-10 pm. This event will honor three New Orleans icons: educator Edward “Kidd” Jordan, vocalist Germaine Bazzle, and cultural leader Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. Music will be provided by Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra.

On Saturday, August 20th and Sunday, August 21st from 1:30 to 7:30 pm, the 2nd annual Jazz at Congo Square Festival will showcase a variety of artists who have contributed tremendously to our city’s local scene and the international music community at-large. Hosted by WWL-TV news personality Charisse Gibson, and two alumni of the Uptown Music Theatre, the 2-day event will include local food, art and merchandise vendors, as well as spoken word and musical artists including: Doreen Ketchens, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet, Tonya Boyd-Cannon, the Brass-A-Holics, Where Y’at Brass Band, DJ Captain Charles and more.

Jazz at Congo Square was created to promote and celebrate the significance of Congo Square, while highlighting why the space is and should remain a historical landmark in New Orleans. The festival will offer space to nonprofit organizations who share a similar mission of preserving New Orleans.

“New Orleans is more than one part of our culture, which is why we’re trying to celebrate all aspects of what makes our city so unique, at the same time,” says founder Delfeayo Marsalis. “In keeping with the festival’s original mission, we are creating a movement that both honors Congo Square and supports the New Orleans talent pool.”

Proceeds from the 2nd annual Jazz at Congo Square Festival will benefit two other community-based organizations founded by Marsalis: the Uptown Music Theatre—an award-winning organization that empowers youth through musical theatre training; and Keep NOLA Music Alive (KNOMA)—founded in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic for the purpose of providing emergency relief to native New Orleans culture bearers.

When Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra hit the stage, audiences are guaranteed to have a jazz party, all night long! Formed in 2008, UJO is stretching the boundaries of what is expected from big bands, playing with an extraordinary sense of joy and fun that could only come from New Orleans. With influences from Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, James Brown to J. Cole, Marsalis and UJO performances help free the mind, warm the heart, and heal the soul.

WRTI Radio Philadelphia notes, “The music is simultaneously progressive and traditional, containing musical influences from across the jazz and blues universe and unmistakably rooted in the grooves of New Orleans second line.”

“The model of the band now is that we can play music from any decade, with conviction and authority,” said Marsalis to the Santa Barbara Independent. “ One minute you’re in the streets of New Orleans, the next at the Apollo, or in a Mississippi jook joint. We’re a feel-good band that focuses on entertaining folks from the first note to the last!”

Come to the 2nd annual Jazz at Congo Square Festival to enjoy the cool Jazz sounds of the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Tonya Boyd-Cannon, Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet, Doreen Joseph and more, while supporting music education for Greater New Orleans kids and native New Orleans Musicians.

Saturday, August 20
1:30pm DJ Captain Charles
2:30pm Congo Square Drum Circle
3:25pm Doreen Ketchens
4:40pm Chuck Perkins, Truth Universal w/DJ E.F. Cuttin’
5:15pm Delfeayo Marsalis & Uptown Jazz Orchestra
6:20pm Where Ya At Brass Band
Sunday, August 21
1:30pm DJ Wick
2:30pm Uptown Music Theatre
2:55pm Congo Square Drum Circle
3:40pm Mariama Curry & African Dancers
4:20pm Tonya Boyd-Cannon
5:20pm Corey Henry & Treme Funktet
6:25pm Brass-A-Holics

Click here for more information

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