Pittsfield CityJazz Festival

Swings Into Second Weekend

By: Ed Bride - Apr 27, 2022

 

The Pittsfield CityJazz Festival is now in full swing (sorry), ushered-in last weekend with the very successful Jam Session at Mission Restaurant. Ten different musicians rotated among the various positions “in the window” at the popular North Street restaurant.

To switch metaphors, we shift into high gear on Wednesday, April 27 with the (free) jazz prodigy concert at the Berkshire Athenaeum. Bassist Ruby Farmer performs with local standouts Benny Kohn (piano) and Conor Meehan (drums) in the 7pm concert that, among other things, pays tribute to Charles Mingus, the seminal jazz bassist and composer whose centennial birthday was just observed on April 22.

It’s a busy weekend, capped by our first-ever Sunday matinee headline concert:

·        On Friday, April 29, the George Russell Jr. Trio with vocalist Lydia Harrell take the stage at the Berkshire Museum, 7:30pm.

·        Saturday, the ever-popular Jazz Crawl will be the occasion for seven different restaurants and lounges to present local jazz artists

·        The DIVA Jazz Orchestra caps it all off with a 2pm concert at the Colonial Theatre on Sunday, May 1. The Berkshires Jazz Youth All Star Band opens for DIVA.

Adorning our posters and program booklet is a futuristic painting by Martin Montero, a Pittsfield High School student whose award was announced yesterday by Mayor Linda Tyer. To enjoy the moment, as covered on Spectrum News, click here

You can meet the artist and go home with an autographed poster at the May 1 DIVA concert.