Our guide to 30th annual Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, which starts June 17

The 30th anniversary of the DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, the East Coast’s largest free jazz festival kicks off June 17, and flows into the week.

Opening the festival names for Wilmington's favorite Jazz son, is “The Best of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts” featuring a band, soloists, chorus and dancers at 7 p.m. June 17 at the Episcopal Church of Sts. Andrew and Matthew, 719 N. Shipley St., Wilmington.

Rodney Square hosts big concerts at 6 p.m. June 20-22 and 2 p.m. June 23, with events at elsewhere before and after.

Here’s our annual guide for Wilmington’s Jazz Week.

What to bring: Bring blankets or low chairs. No alcohol, Betz said, noting vendors will sell beer, wine and food. Parts of Market and 10th streets will be closed, with traffic limited on King Street.

A Delaware connection: Making her festival debut on June 23 is Sara Lazarus, a Wilmington native and Harvard-trained singer who lives in France. She was 8 when she started studying the piano, 12 when she joined her school band, playing tenor saxophone. She also “started singing at an early age, imitating the singers she heard on her mother’s record collection of Broadway musicals. By 16, she was singing and playing tenor saxophone with the American Youth Jazz Band,” according to her bio for the Audi International Jazz Festival. She released her first album in 2005. Entertainment.ie says she “draws from the lore of standards to give free way to her true and tender nature and to her swing rhythm.”

Educational connection: Clifford Brown and two performers returning to the festival – Ernie Watts and Gerald Chavis – were all students of Boysie Lowery. Lowery’s 50-year career lives on in the Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency. This Light Up the Queen Foundation program immerses 15 students, ages 17 to 25, for a week of jazz in Wilmington.

Cannon called several performers “great jazz luminaries,” including Watts, a Grammy-winning tenor saxophonist; Chavis, a trumpeter; Miguel Zenon, an alto sax player; and Marcus Miller, an electric bass player/multi-instrumentalist who performed and recorded with Miles Davis.

FUN IN DELAWARE

Our guide to the Italian Festival, which runs through Sunday, June 24

Dewey Beach's newest bar has a country club theme

Is Heirloom in Lewes Delaware's best restaurant?

All about “Brownie:” Wilmington native Clifford Brown was a jazz trumpeter and composer who died in a car crash at age 25 on June 26, 1956. “Brown was one of the most influential jazz musicians of the mid-20th century,” his historical marker says. In 1954, he was selected as New Star of the Year in a poll of industry critics. That year he also formed the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, “considered by many to be the greatest ‘hard bop’ ensemble of all time,” the marker continues.

Two of his compositions – “Joy Spring” and “Daahoud” – are jazz standards, the city says.

He is memorialized in a street – Clifford Brown Walk – which runs seven blocks on Wilmington’s East Side, passing Howard High, his alma mater. At the north end of the walk is the Clifford Brown Listening Garden. “Motion detectors sense movement, and a random selection of Clifford Brown’s music plays from speakers surrounding the central sculpture,” designer Rick Rothrock says.

Day by day: Betz said the Rodney Square concerts follow some rough themes: traditional on June 20, Latin on June 21, R&B and fusion on June 22 and variety on June 23. “Saturday’s lineup shows the many textures of jazz.” Betz expects evening concerts to wrap up about 10:30.

Here’s the lineup

On the Rodney Square main stage, 10th and Market streets, Wilmington

June 20, 6 p.m. – Laila Biali; Matthew Whitaker; and The Clifford Brown Tribute Big Band with Gerald Chavis and featuring Ernie Watts.

June 21, 6 p.m. – Miguel Zenon Quartet; Jane Bunnett and Maqueque; and Arturo Sandoval. Sandoval, who has won 10 Grammy awards, calls himself “one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.”

June 22, 6 p.m. – The Lao Tizer Band featuring Chieli Minucci, Eric Marienthal & Karen Briggs; Deva Mahal; and Brian McKnight. McKnight is a singer-songwriter, arranger, producer and musician who plays nine instruments and has sold more than 25 million records.

June 23, noon – Sammy Miller and The Congregation; Sara Lazarus; Sidewalk Chalk; and Marcus Miller.

Other venues

June 18, 5:30 p.m. – “Jazz in Clifford Brown Garden” features Alfie Moss and her ensemble, plus a youth band, at the garden, 1500 Clifford Brown Walk.

June 23, noon – Graduates of the Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency join with violinist Barbara Govatos and others to perform works they composed during their residency. It’s at the Episcopal Church of Sts. Andrew and Matthew.

June 24, 2 p.m. – Jazz residency graduates perform at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington.

How to enjoy it 

All those forms of jazz: When asked what new fans should know, Carlton Cannon, middle school band director at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and a performer at two previous festivals, quoted jazz great Duke Ellington, who “preferred to describe his music as ‘beyond category.’ ”

“What you will hear at the CBJF is beyond category,” he said. “There are so many styles, just like a tree has many branches. What holds the tree together in the ground are its roots. With jazz, its roots primarily are based upon improvisation (spontaneous creation inspired by the musical ambience surrounding you).” And the ambience is “amazing and electrifying” at the festival.

Open minds: “The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is a great way for people to come together to enjoy live music,” said Karla Bell and John Sopkanich, choral director and band director at William Penn High School. “They typically are not preoccupied with their phones. Live music is never performed the same way every time, so attendees are appreciating every moment. To maximize the experience, the audience should come with open mind and ears to embrace new or different styles of music.”

“Bring a good attitude, and be ready to have a good time,” said Tina Betz, the city’s director of cultural affairs and fund development and festival organizer for 18 years. “You’ll be with people you know and people you don’t, and they could become new friends.”

Knowledgeable ears: “Attendees can better appreciate the jazz festival simply by being introduced to the realm of jazz, and all of its different forms,” said Drew Keim, director of instrumental music at Tower Hill. “By listening to some of the greats – Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Count Basie, John Coltrane, B.B. King, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Marsalis – you can start to get an idea how each is so uniquely fascinating. Once you start to learn the ‘language,’ you can then gain a better understanding of the different dialects. A open mind and a knowledegable ear can make a huge difference.”

Preparations: Bell and Sopkanich advised researching performers. Catch samples at http://cliffordbrownjazzfest.org. “Jazz is the foundation of many of the styles we listen to today, and the audience should expect to hear some melodies and harmonies commonly used. It’s also important to recognize the skill and abilities of the musicians, because many of the artists are improvising and creating on the spot. It takes years of practice and performing to be a master of jazz performance.”

At the festival, most performers will have CDs for sale and will meet and greet with fans.

DELAWARE FESTIVALS

Firefly Music Festival has had only one female headliner out of 26

June Jam rewind brings back bands from the festival's past 40 years