Weather veered to extremes during the first week of the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA, held May 27 – June 12 in Charleston, S.C. Thunderstorms forced Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra to abandon the great outdoor Cistern Yard concert venue on Saturday night for another College of Charleston facility, the TD Arena. But René Marie, with a sextet that boasted Wycliffe Gordon and Etienne Charles, was untroubled by the elements the following evening as she became the first jazz headliner to perform at the totally rebuilt Gaillard Center.
Opening night of the 40th-annual festival set the tone, as Spoleto celebrated the Gaillard with a dazzling new production of Porgy and Bess, the Gershwin Brothers’ folk opera that has been a wellspring of inspiration for American jazz.
Spoleto Festival USA
Performances included René Marie, Randy Weston, Cécile McLorin Salvant and more