Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival Turns 40! Celebrating The Centennial of Jazz
SATURDAY, JUNE 24
AMPHITHEATRE
Chaka Khan
Jacob Collier
Jean-Luc Ponty: The Atlantic Years
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Jazz 100: The Music of Dizzy, Ella, Mongo, and Monk
The Suffers
Dave Stryker Organ Quartet
GAZEBO STAGE
Barbara Fasano
Jack Broadbent
Shabaka + The Ancestors
Dave Stryker Organ Quartet
Aruán Ortiz Trio
SUNDAY, JUNE 25
AMPHITHEATRE
Gipsy Kings
To Ray, With Love ft. Maceo Parker, the Ray Charles Orchestra, and the Raelettes
Hudson featuring Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, John Medeski, + Larry Grenadier
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Quinn Sullivan
Jane Bunnett + Maqueque
GAZEBO STAGE
Cory Henry + The Funk Apostles
Jane Bunnett + Maqueque
Adam O’Farrill Quartet
Blind Boy Paxton
Noah Preminger/Jason Palmer Quartet
SARATOGA SPRINGS -The Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25, 2017. Founded in 1978 by jazz impresario George Wein, Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival is the fifth longest-consecutive-running jazz festival in North America. Initially founded as “the Newport Jazz Festival at Saratoga” the weekend event was renamed Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in 1998. The two-day, two-stage festival continues to be one of the largest jazz music events in North America, beloved by audiences for both the remarkable annual line-up of international jazz talent and the spectacular setting at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC).
The milestone 2017 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival features an extraordinary lineup of musicians, ranging from emerging artists making their festival debuts, to the return of two legendary musicians who performed on the inaugural 1978 festival, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jean Luc-Ponty. Headlining the weekend are Chaka Khan, “The Queen of R+B,” and the Gipsy Kings, who bring their irresistible rhythms to the Jazz Festival for the first time. In addition, three boundary-breaking young musicians from the United Kingdom will showcase their inventive approaches to jazz performance. Furthermore, Jazz 100, led by Danilo Pérez, will pay homage to iconic musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Mongo Santamaria, and Thelonious Monk in celebration of the 100th anniversary of their shared birth year.
2017 also marks the centennial of the first recorded jazz album and the first commercial use of the word “jazz,” when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded their New Orleans rooted music at Victor Talking Machine. The recording was an instantaneous success, ushering in a new era of popular music, the “Jazz Age.”
TICKETS:
Tickets for the festival will be available online at spac.org . New $20 amphitheater ticket options are available for children ages 15 and under and students with school-issued ID at time of entrance. Seating is best available with some exclusions. Lawn seating is free for children ages 12 and under.
Orchestra Pit $105.00
Sections 1-7; Boxes $95.00
Sections 8-12; 15;
Front 16-17 $85.00
Sections 13-14;
Rear 16-17; 18-30 $75.00
Lawn
(General Admission) $65.00
NOTES:
– $20 student tickets are available online and in-person at the box office. Student tickets are only valid with school-issued ID at time of entrance (valid in sections 13 & 14; 18-30).
– $20 children’s amphitheater tickets, for kids aged 15 and under, are available online and in-person at the box office (excludes pit seats).
“The 2017 40th anniversary Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival will be an extraordinary tribute to the history of our festival and to the future of jazz music,” said Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. “For four decades our festival has played a critical role as an incubator of the up-and-coming stars of tomorrow. Artists like Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Jack DeJohnette have been part Saratoga’s premier place amongst the great American jazz festivals. Likewise, today’s young artists Cory Henry, Jacob Collier, and Cécile McLorin Salvant are the future of jazz. Forty years from now, we will look back with a sense of the great fortune we have to experience their current work on the magnificent SPAC stage.”
“In presenting the 40th edition of the festival, and celebrating the centennial of jazz, the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival continues to be in a powerful position to honor the musicians who’ve given us the rich legacy of jazz heritage, and to present a new and diverse generation of artists and visionaries who embody a community that’s both a life force for new ideas and social change,” said Danny Melnick, the festival producer and President of Absolutely Live Entertainment.
The 40th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival is co-presented by SPAC and Absolutely Live Entertainment, LLC.
