Fri 7/10 @ 4:20PM
Sat 7/11 @ 3PM
When Tri-C JazzFest revamped its format last year, moving all its events to a single weekend and a single location — PlayhouseSquare — that opened up the door to try some new things.
One of those things was an outdoor stage on the plaza at PlayhouseSquare, offering a roster of local diverse local acts for free, drawing patrons to the area and giving JazzFest attendees something to check out between shows in the surrounding theaters. It proved so popular, they’re doing it again, with two days of outdoor music.
On Friday, High School Rock Off winners M4 from Erie, Pa, will get things rolling, followed by sets from folk rockers Maura Rogers & the Bellows, and funk/jazz/Afrobeat percussion-and-brass ensemble the Revolution Brass Band (pictured), who’ll lead a second line parade along with puppets and stiltwalkers from Parade the Circle, Clearwater, and Acid Cats. ]
Things get jazzier toward evening with the TCJF Soundworks, Clearwater and Acid Cats, and kick into dance mode at 9:50 with a public dance lesson from Get Hep Swing and then a couple of bands playing swing style dance music, Moustache Yourself and Red Light Roxy.
On Saturday the music starts at 3pm with Echoes, a contemporary jazz quartet out of the Oberlin Conservatory. Blues & jazz vocalist Ki Allen, jazz group the Curtis Taylor Quartet, jamtronica band Broccoli Samurai, Kent’s legendary Numbers Band, dynamic ten-piece Afrobeat ensemble Fiscal Spliff, soft soul band Hubb’s Groove and the Eddie Baccus Sr. jazz & blues quartet round out the evening.
tri-c.edu/jazzfest/outdoor-stage
[Photo by Anastasia Pantsios]Cleveland, OH 44115