Free Jazz Strut: Friday, October 1 from 5:30-10:30 p.m.
Free Jazz Fest: Saturday October 2 from 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
On Friday it’s the “Jazz Strut.” Stroll, sip and dine your way through downtown Northampton to the sounds of different jazz ensembles at various establishments across town. Saturday’s “Jazz Fest” includes free concerts — some outdoors at Pulaski Park, others indoors at various venues.
Art Blakey Centennial Celebration
Academy of Music, Northampton
Sat, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Anyone who appreciates “Hard-Bop,” the soulful jazz sub-genre that in the mid-1950s followed on the heels of bebop, fully understands the historical significance of drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Blakey led the Jazz Messengers for 35 years, from 1955 to 1990, the year he died. The concert will include an all-star cooperative of enormously talented musicians led by members of Blakey's Jazz Messengers. This ticketed event is the finale of the Northampton Jazz Festival.