Syracuse Jazz Fest to showcase SU student and faculty ensembles for first time Syracuse Jazz Fest to showcase SU jazz ensembles

The free festival has been drawing high-profile talent to Syracuse since 1982

For the first time in its 41 year history, Syracuse Jazz Fest will feature Syracuse University student and faculty ensembles in its lineup.

Student jazz ensemble Orange Juice, directed by Dr. Theresa Chen, an instructor in the Setnor School of Music, will perform on the second night of Jazz Fest in Hanover Square on Thursday, June 22. SU’s faculty ensemble will perform that Saturday on the Amazon Stage in Clinton Square, and on Sunday, the festival will close out in Hendricks Chapel with a gospel celebration, which will feature SU’s Black Celestial Choral Ensemble.

The festival, which is the largest free jazz festival in the northeast, draws a myriad of talent each year, from music legends like Aretha Franklin to local acts. This year’s headliners include Gladys Knight and Herbie Hancock.

“We’ve managed to attract a lot of great artists to Syracuse,” Jazz Fest founder Frank Malfitano said. “We’re really excited about the caliber of super star entertainers we’ve been able to bring here.”

This year’s festival will take place from Wednesday, June 21 to Sunday, June 25, and it’s the first time in a while that Jazz Fest has acquired a five-day lineup, Malfitano said.

On the first night of the festival, 26 acts will perform at 24 different downtown bars, clubs, and restaurants for a club-hopping experience. Venues will include Syracuse staples like Salt City Market, Funk N Waffles, and Pastabilities. The music acts will take place from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

“If you decide you wanna come down for an hour, you can probably see three to four different groups just by walking from club to club,” Malfitano said. “It’s a really unique experience.”

past jazz fest performance

Inspired by music festivals of the 1970s like Woodstock, Malfitano decided he wanted to introduce a weekend-long concert series to Syracuse. The festival is intended for all ages and fans of various degrees of jazz knowledge, Malfitano said.

“It’s our version of Bonnaroo or Coachella,” he said. “It’s like ‘Jazz-stock.’”

One of the most important aspects of Syracuse Jazz Fest, Malfitano said, is the free admission policy, which allows for a more inclusive environment and access to high-class music that many fans otherwise wouldn’t have.

band performing at Syracuse jazz fest

“To be able to present world-class entertainment of this caliber, free of charge, so that everyone has equal access to it, is really important to what we do, and it’s fundamentally part of our philosophy,” Malfitano said.

While fundraising has been a challenge in the past and remains ever-so important (attribute) year-to-year, acquiring the resources to put on Jazz Fest has only gotten easier, Malfitano said.

“This year it’s even bigger and better. I think it will be really well-received.”

Frank Malfitano: I was a festival junkie, I was a music junkie. I loved music and I used to go all over the place to see it. I went to the Newport Jazz Festival, I went to Woodstock, and one day it occured to me this is something we should do in Syracuse and that we could do in Syracuse.

This year we have three ensembles from Syracuse University and I’m really thrilled about it because I’m an alum. The first is on Thursday, June 22 at Hanover Square when we’ll be presenting Orange Juice. On Saturday, on the Amazon Main Stage over at Clinton Square, we’re gonna have the SU Faculty Jazz Ensemble. And then on Sunday we’re gonna have a festival closing gosepl celebration that’s taking place at Hendricks Chapel and is gonna feature the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble from Syracuse University. So it’s the first time we’ve ever done a Sunday or a gospel closing ceremony, gospel jazz. So I’m really excited about all of it and I’m thrilled about the university’s participation.

It’s our version of Bonnaroo or the New Orleans jazz and heritage festival or Coachella. It’s a big, free music festival that has attracted as many as 35 or 40,000 people in one night to see people like Arethra Franklin or Ray Charles. It’s unqiue for the Syracuse and Central New York region and it’s actually pretty unique in the Northeast. It’s the largest free admission jazz festival in the Northeast U.S. We have people who come in from metropolitan New York, Canada, all over the world. We’ve had people in from Australia, California, Japan, England, Toronto, Montreal. I mean it’s really an amazing experience.

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