TD James Moody Jazz Festival 2015

For the fourth year, the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, showcases an all-star lineup of the country's best musicians, with many more artists to be announced, held from Nov. 7-15, on and off the NJPAC campus. Tony Bennett headlines this year's festival with performances on November 12th and 13th; no one in American popular music has recorded for so long and at such a high level of excellence than Bennett. The festival is the site of one of three Frank Sinatra centennial concerts planned this season: The Real Sinatra Songbook, with a cast of singers recognized for their virtuosity on Broadway and beyond, on Nov. 9. The second installment of a new series, One on One with Christian McBride, brings Bruce Hornsby to the stage on Nov. 12 for music and talk. Renowned jazzmakers Judy Carmichael, Dianne Reeves, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Bill Charlap and Dorado Schmitt & Django Festival Allstars are all on board. Festival-goers can expect the return of the always in-demand, Sunday brunch concerts at Dorthaan's Place with T.S. Monk Sextet, as well as performances by five of the crème-de-la-crème of female singers during the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition on the festival's final day.

FREE EVENTS

Another centennial, this one in honor of Billie Holiday, is cause for celebration at Day of Swing, an afternoon packed with free family activities, on Nov. 14. A lunch time  concert by the Joe Alterman Trio on November 10 is sponsored by WBGO and on the same day is the screening of 2014 documentary, Keep On Keepin On, the late New Jersey jazz trumpeter Clark Terry is filmed over the course of five years as he mentors Justin Kauflin, a blind piano prodigy who is preparing to compete on the international stage. Linda Moody along with a panel of "jazz wives" gathers at the Newark Museum to discuss their diverse roles as muses, business managers and heads of household in discussion, Jazz Wives, Jazz Lives on Nov. 14. 

Also included in this year's TD James Moody Jazz Festival is the exhibition Jazz, Jews, and African Americans: Cultural Intersections in Newark and Beyond, co-produced by NJPAC, the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers-Newark, the Jewish Museum of New Jersey at Congregation Ahavas Sholom, and WBGO Jazz 88.3FM, and presented in partnership with seven religious, educational and cultural institutions. This free exhibition, showing from Oct. 15 - Dec. 13 at the Jewish Museum of New Jersey, delves into some of the most fruitful and sometimes contentious relationships in jazz history through photos, documents and text.