Join us for the 14th Annual Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, Saturday, September 27, 2014. Three stages of live music, arts, crafts, a family park — even an Instrument Petting Zoo. Free and fun for all ages.
The Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival is located on Columbus Avenue between Burke Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston.
Festival Schedule
Federator N° 1
12:00 pm
BeanTown Stage
- Federator N° 1 is a big band playing up-tempo Afrobeat and reggae that will make you dance while also delivering a message.
Marco Pignataro Jazzet featuring Eddie Gomez
12:00 pm
Berklee Stage
- Italian saxophonist Marco Pignataro has performed extensively across Europe and the Americas in jazz festivals and international music venues. Pignataro's latest album, Sofia’s Heart, was produced by jazz legend Eddie Gomez and features Pignataro's compositions and arrangements.
Marcus Santos and Bloco AfroBrazil
1:00 pm
Columbus Avenue (Street Performance)
- Brazilian Marcus Santos is a contemporary percussionist and educator. He commits his life to the study, teaching, and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music.
Screaming Headless Torsos
1:15 pm
BeanTown Stage
- Screaming Headless Torsos, or SHT, is a genre-defying rock band that formed in 1989. The band's music mixes and mashes guitar-driven rock, jazz, hip-hop, funk, and more.
Ambrose Akinmusire
1:15 pm
Berklee Stage
- Ambrose Akinmusire brings his artistic vision to the next level with his second release for Blue Note Records. The New Yorker calls him "a thrilling young trumpeter and astute bandleader [with a] unique spark in his playing."
Aubrey Logan
2:15 pm
Natixis Global Asset Management Stage
- Aubrey Logan is an award-winning artist. Her vocals range from deep and electric to delicate and vulnerable. She breaks traditional genre barriers by combining jazz vocals with R&B, neo-soul, pop, and a touch of rock.
Miguel Zenon
2:30 pm
Berklee Stage
- Multiple Grammy Award nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón is part of a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended innovation and tradition.
Melissa Aldana and Crash Trio
3:45 pm
BeanTown Stage
- Melissa Aldana began playing saxophone at the tender age of 6. After watching pupils come in and out of her home in Santiago, Chile, to take lessons from her father, Marcos Aldana—a renowned jazz saxophonist himself—the young Melissa would pester him to teach her as well.
Snarky Puppy
3:45 pm
Natixis Global Asset Management Stage
- Snarky Puppy seamlessly fuses a deep knowledge and respect for musical tradition with sonic and conceptual innovation in a way that is able to reach the most critical—or most carefree—audience.
Dionne Farris with the Russell Gunn Quartet
3:45 pm
Berklee Stage
- Producer, actor, and Grammy Award-winning vocalist Dionne Farris is a powerhouse.
Sheila E
5:00 pm
Natixis Global Asset Management Stage
- Sheila E was obviously influenced by her father, Latin jazz legend and timbalero Pete Escovedo (then band leader of the influential band Azteca), while watching him rehearse. At 5 years old, she made her concert debut at the former Sands Ballroom in Oakland, California, when her father invited her on stage to play a solo in front of an audience of 3,000.
Yoron Israel/Bill Pierce Quintet
5:00 pm
Berklee Stage
- Yoron Israel, a native Chicagoan, is a gifted and sought-after musician whose exciting and tasteful drumming, along with his compositional talents, is spotlighted throughout his recordings. His recordings have received enthusiastic praise from journalists, musical peers, and fans alike.
Kneebody
5:00 pm
BeanTown Stage
- Kneebody's sound is a combination of explosive rock energy, high-level nuanced chamber ensemble playing, and highly wrought compositions that are balanced with adventurous no-holds-barred improvising.