Top Stars set for Havre de Grace Jazz and Blues Fest

Havre de Grace, Maryland: The Havre de Grace (HdG) Arts Collective has announced the inaugural Havre de Grace Jazz & Blues Fest on June 7-9, 2019 sponsored by Visit Harford. Three days of music, film and more at the Top of the Chesapeake. The City-wide music festival, which kicks off with First Friday on June 7th, will present outstanding jazz and blues performances at multiple venues in the HdG Arts & Entertainment District (Cultural Center at the Opera House, Frank J. Hutchins Memorial Park and the HdG Auditorium).

Festival headliners include two-time Grammy Nominated Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers (along with opener Johnny Neel, a pianist who played with the Allman Brothers); and The Cab Calloway Orchestra (with the Nico Sarbanes Trio as opener and guest artist). Cab Calloway’s daughter and Harford County resident, Camay Murphy, is scheduled to make an appearance.

Tickets are available online at HdgJazzBluesFest.org with a complete listing of events.

Havre de Grace Jazz & Blues Fest headliners include two-time Grammy Nominated Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers
Headliners include two-time Grammy Nominated Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers.

The festival lineup also includes English international rising star Jack Broadbent (dubbed ‘New Master of the Slide Guitar’ at the Montreux Jazz Festival and featured on Joe Bonamassa’s ‘Blues Musicians to Watch in 2018’); the internationally known Eric Byrd Trio; The Headhunters Band, featuring Mike Clark and local jazzman Benny Russell; the Maryland Rising Stars Concert featuring pianist/keyboardist Mark G. Meadows and the Movement, saxophonist Tony Hancock “Saxl Rose” (Havre de Grace High School alumnus who recently completed a UK tour), and Harford County up and coming guitarist Noah F. Pierre.

There will also be a free concert by the Havre de Grace High School Jazz Band, the Cecil County All-County Jazz Band, and “Country Roots”, the Cecil County Faculty Jazz Band. The musicians will be fresh from an inspiring clinic with international trumpeter Dr. Shawn Edmonds, who will also be performing later in the day as part of the Cab Calloway Orchestra.

Local businesses/organizations/museums have joined the festival as Community Partners also featuring jazz and blues artists in their establishments. Other festival sponsors include the City of Havre de Grace, Integrity Real Estate, APGFCU, Guitar Restorations, and Neil’s Transportation.

The Havre de Grace Jazz & Blues Fest will also include a film series starting with a free screening of Jazz on a Summer’s Day, Bert Stern’s documentary record of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Charlotte Zwerin’s ground-breaking documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser; a lecture/film Animated Jazz featuring film scholar Stuart Hudgins, tracing the parallel development of art in animated films and jazz; and Deep Blues, a documentary dedicated to the blues artists born and raised in the Mississippi Delta and Northern Mississippi will round out the film series.

Raffle tickets are available to win a custom Fender Telecaster guitar (modeled after a 1951 Fender Broadcaster/Telecaster) donated by Charles Carter of Guitar Restorations valued at $1,000.

For a full lineup, information about other Festival-related events in Havre de Grace and to order tickets, visit www.HdgJazzBluesFest.org or visit the Havre de Grace Visitors Center (450 Pennington Avenue).

The Havre de Grace Arts Collective is a 501(c)(3) organization which addresses the cultural and economic needs of Havre de Grace and the surrounding region, including oversight of the Cultural Center at the Opera House, Arts and Entertainment District (a Maryland designation offering tax incentives and credits to attract artists to work and live in Havre de Grace), and the Arts by the Bay Gallery. For more information, visit www.HdgArtsCollective.org .