Fifth annual Berkshire Jazz Showcase
Free Event on Pittsfield’s First Street Common
By: Ed Bride - Jun 23, 2023
We announce the lineup for our popular Berkshire Jazz Showcase, a free event on Pittsfield’s First Street Common Saturday, July 8, 1-5pm.
We are presenting four of the most popular and versatile regional bands to Pittsfield Common for the fifth annual Berkshire Jazz Showcase, in an outdoor concert from 1-5pm. The wide-ranging lineup for the jazz extravaganza will include:
- 1pm: Wanda Houston, the diva of Berkshire vocalists, making her Showcase debut;
- 2pm: Saxophonist Paul Ostermayer and guests;
- 3pm: Guitarist Luke Franco and his quartet; and
- 4pm: Andy Kelly’s Jazz Ambassadors, with their popular 7-piece New Orleans configuration.
The event will be held on the field adjacent to the First Street Common’s playground. Bring your own blankets or chairs. Picnic on the lawn or check out the food trucks that will be present. [Rain date is Sunday, July 9]
As you know by now, Berkshire County enjoys a long and well-deserved reputation as a hotbed of jazz talent, going back nearly 75 years to Music Inn, and now enjoying renewed popularity throughout the region. On any particular weekend, and some weekdays, audiences can find dozens of locally-based world-class musicians in clubs and lounges, but rarely on a main stage. Berkshires Jazz addressed that oversight in 2018, when our first showcase took off, with the City of Pittsfield’s outdoor stage as the launching pad. Demonstrating the wide variety of Berkshires-based jazz artists, this year’s event will feature all new bands.
And, it’s free, thanks go generous sponsors The Berkshire Eagle, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, HiBrid, Mountain One, the Mill Town Foundation, and the City of Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development.