If you’ve been keeping up you know that one of the upcoming (June 10-16) DC Jazz Festival highlight evenings is certain to be Saturday, June 13. On that evening, at the beautiful riverfront park known as the Yards, in the Navy Yard area adjacent to National’s Park, DCJF will present a highly anticipated quadruple bill of Common, Esperanza Spalding, Femi Kuti & the Positive Force, and saxophonist Marshall Keys‘ band. Our intrepid DCJF social media coordinator (and proprietor of Jazzcorner.com), Lois Gilbert, captured the following impressions on jazz from Femi Kuti (son of the late, great king of Afro-funk and erstwhile Broadway show subject Fela Kuti):
“Jazz was the successful revolution that finally brought about change of freedom and respect for African Americans and AFRICA. Jazz was [a] formidable weapon that showed incredible dexterity and improvisation that showed the world boundless possibilities the human race could achieve. Not just through music, Jazz inspired all sectors of professionalism consciously and unconsciously that spread all over the world.”
– Femi Kuti, March 2015
WWW.DCJAZZFEST.ORG