Montclair Jazz Festival

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The Montclair Jazz Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, Eddie Palmieri, and more.

Launched as a summer workshop for Jazz House Kids, one of the country’s most successful jazz education programs, the festival now includes nine big bands and a host of performers. It still features performances from Jazz House Kids students, and more than 125 of them will play during the two-week long festival in Montclair, N.J. See a schedule below. 

The festival starts Friday, July 26, with artistic director Christian McBride spinning as DJ Brother Mister at the 3rd Annual DJ Brother Mister Old School Funk + Soul Dance Party. McBride’s wife, Melissa Walker, founded Jazz House Kids in 2002 with just eight students. Since then it has served more than 50,000 young musicians.

New this year, the festival will take over the Montclair Center Stage on Saturday, August 3 for Jazz on Church Street. The event will include five hours of live music with performances by the Candice Reyes Quintet featuring Nathan Eklund, the Oscar Perez Quartet, and the Jazz House Kids Alumni All-Stars. More live music can be heard at the DLV Lounge backyard patio on Sunday afternoons with the Jazz House Adult Community Band (July 28 and August 4). The festival’s community partner Montclair Film will feature a four-part curated jazz film series at its screening room on Bloomfield Avenue on July 28 and August 2, 4, and 9.

The festival ends on August 10 in Nishuane Park with headliners that include Bettye LaVette, Joey DeFrancesco, Mark Whitfield, McBride, Palmieri, Mike Lee, Jazz House Collective, and performances by the Jazz House Kids.