Phoenix will join more than 150 cities celebrating International Jazz Day with the Fourth Annual International Jazz Day AZ festival at CityScape on Thursday to wrap up Jazz Appreciation Month.
The festival will go from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will include performances by international musicians from all types of jazz backgrounds. It will celebrate the diversity that defines jazz, said Doc Jones, the creator of the event.
Jones has been part of the jazz scene in Arizona for over two decades as an educator and performer. He opened a jazz club in Phoenix, Doc’s Place, that closed in 2010.
He said the festival will highlight “real jazz.”
“We coined the name ‘real jazz’ because right now jazz festivals around the country really are just music festivals,” Jones said. “They put more R&B artists on the jazz festivals and it kind of got away from the tradition of this art form called jazz.”
He said he wants diversity to be the highlight of the festival because he feels like that is what is missing from jazz culture in Arizona.
“We have players here not getting any work, and it’s kind of frustrating,” Jones said.
Nayo Jones, a Phoenix native, jazz vocalist and Doc Jones’ daughter, will be performing with her band, The Nayo Jones Experience. Jones spent the past three years building a reputation in New Orleans, and she just recorded a song with New Orleans jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.
Although Nayo Jones is based in New Orleans, her jazz upbringing took place in Phoenix, so she said it’s important for her to come back and perform.
“I feel like Phoenix has such an important part of my growth and foundation, so anytime I can come back and sing, it’s definitely with pleasure,” she said.
Because her father was such a big part of the jazz scene when she was growing up, Jones said it meant she was exposed to many musicians who influenced her style, such as the late Phoenix jazz legend Margo Reed.
“I pick songs that I can relate to, and I feel like that’s what I got from Margo,” Jones said.
Jazz saxophonist Azar Lawrence will perform with trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Lawrence headlined the festival last year.
Lawrence said he will be bringing real jazz with him to Phoenix again this year.
“I think it exposed a lot of people to true jazz,” he said.
Lawrence, Payton and Nayo Jones will also perform Wednesday at Arizona State University’s Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale for a festival kick-off event.
The festival will also include performances by Latin jazz artist Carlos Rivas, saxophonist Kerry Campbell and several other jazz musicians. Proceeds from the event will go to NextStudent Academy of the Arts, Doc Jones’s nonprofit organization that provides music education to valley schools and community organizations.
Contact the reporter at karen.loschiavo@asu.edu.
