An annual jazz festival is returning to Springfield, Massachusetts this weekend, kicking things off earlier than usual with special shows downtown before the main event.
The 11th annual Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival gets into full-swing Friday night and throughout Saturday – but this year featured a few days of preamble.
That included New Orleans vocalist and trombone player Glen David Andrews and company playing on Wednesday, July 10, as the festival held a “kickoff” near city hall.
Put together by the non-profit “Blues to Green,” the festival is open to the public and features all manner of music, from jazz to funk to blues and more.
Speaking before Andrews began to play, Blues to Green Executive Director and Founder Kristin Neville spoke to the crowd outside One Financial Plaza, describing what goes into the fest – and what organizers hope the public gets out of it.
“We've been working really hard and excited to share some incredible music with you over the next few days and to share a celebration of community and diversity and arts and culture and cultural revitalization,” Neville said.
The wife of the late musician Charles Neville, of the Neville Brothers fame, Kristin says organizers of the festival have worked to bring musicians from across the area and well-beyond to share their music and to also bring people from the diverse cultural communities of the region together.
Remarking that the event can bring up to 8-10,000 people to the city, Mayor Domenic Sarno says the festival that takes place at both the Stearns Square and Tower Square Park area has become something of a staple in Springfield.
“This now becomes a marquee event here in the City of Springfield, and when you come down, you feel good, you have a good time, you do little singing, you do a little dancing - and that's what all the Jazz and Roots Festival is all about, the mayor said.
According to festival volunteer and White Lion Brewery founder Ray Berry, this year’s festival included events on Wednesday and Thursday, with Andrews launching the week of music, and acts like the Leverett, Massachusetts-based Masala Jazz playing Thursday.
After that is the main event – starting Friday at 5 p.m. and going until 10 with acts such as Lefever, Malado and Misty Blues. The next day, the music goes from 11:30 a.m. until 10 at night, with close to a dozen acts.
Event board chair Vanessa Ford says the event is much more than an opportunity to take in good jazz music. Like Neville, she says the human connection is invaluable.
“We're so grateful to be able to bring positive energy to the City of Springfield, we know that people need to have a human connection more than ever, and we feel that music is a thing that connects and binds us,” Ford said. “So, we are bringing together the best of the best. We have local musicians, we have musicians from all over our country, and we're so proud to be able to say that we are connecting around one common thing that we love and that's the power of music, to change our hearts, move our souls and to energize us to be more connected together.”
