It’s the depths of winter, a time in which there aren’t a lot of music festivals happening around Hudson Valley. But thankfully the Hudson Jazz Festival will return this month to once again bring two weekends of creative warmth to the region. The event, which will run from February 16 through February 26 at the historic and acoustically magnificent Hudson Hall, presents six evenings and two days starring some of the most imaginative artists on today’s jazz scene.
The festival, which has been curated by Live Music Society Executive Director and former Lincoln Center Vice President Cat Henry, will begin on February 16 with an opening reception (5-7pm) for “Body & Soul,” an exhibition of jazz-inspired paintings, textiles, and clothing by artist and fashion designer Marine Penvern, a French-born Hudson resident.
The live music gets underway on February 17 at 7pm with a concert by vocalist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles and her band Scope alongside works by visual artist Laetitia Kiang. “It’s a mixture of many things,” says Charles about her group’s newest album, 2022’s Blank Canvas. “Jazz is definitely the foundation, but there’s also indie rock, hip-hop, trap…lots of different feels.”
On February 18 at 7pm, trumpeter Marquis Hill will make his first festival appearance to perform pieces from New Gospel Revisited, his 2022 reimagining of the music of his 2014 debut New Gospel, with his quartet. Innovative singer Michael Mayo will feature on February 19 at 3pm, bringing his fluid, playful style (think Stevie Wonder or Bobby McFerrin) in a special solo set.
Weekend number two begins on February at 7pm with drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. and his sextet Generation Y. The percussionist and band leader is well known for his Grammy-winning work with Christian McBride and his completed world tours with Kurt Elling and Joey Alexander. New York vocalists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould will appear on February 24 at 7pm to deliver a mix of new compositions and interpretations of jazz classics.
Pianist Aaron Parks and his group, which includes singer Samantha Rise and erstwhile Hudsonian and famed bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, will premiere “Dreaming Home,” a new work specially commissioned for the festival, on February 25 at 7pm. “Meshell is one of my all-time heroes,” says Parks. “Knowing that she’s connected to Hudson, when the festival came to me with the commission I immediately wanted to ask her if she’d be part of it. I’m so happy that she agreed. This will be the first time that we’ve played together.”
The festival closes out on February 26 at 3pm with a show by bassist Endea Owens of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s” house band, Stay Human. For the Hudson date, Owens will lead her own band, the Cookout, in a program of joyous jazz imbued with a spirit of community and activism.
This article appears in February 2023.
