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Save D.C. Venues: The Music Venue Relief Act

Join our coalition of musicians, organizers and advocates calling on the city to step in before we lose more beloved venues. —> TAKE ACTION NOW <— FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 3, 2020 Contact: Chris Naoum; Aaron L. Myers II WASHINGTON, DC — A coalition of DC musicians and music advocates launched a grassroots campaign this […]

September 4, 2020 0

News

Twins Jazz, a U Street institution, closes permanently

Twins Jazz, a vibrant supper club that has served for two decades as a cornerstone of the U Street scene, will permanently close, its owners announced Thursday in a statement posted to its website. Twins is the latest in a string of establishments felled by the coronavirus pandemic, which since March has left music venues […]

August 27, 2020 0

Videos

Watch Steve Arnold and Sea Change perform ‘Wide Eyed’ at the Spotlight Residency

True to the group’s title, the emotional tone of a Sea Change set moves in tides, or waves — from sunlit optimism in one song to a dark, pensive moodiness in another. But wide as that contrast might be, Arnold’s compositions are all distinctively his own. They seem to come from a particular headspace: one […]

August 6, 2020 0

News

D.C. jazz musicians march against homophobia in the community

Saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed convened a demonstration earlier this month in support of D.C.’s LGBTQ+ musicians, responding to the ongoing trend of homophobic speech within the community. Below are some photos from the march, which took place downtown on July 2, as well as accounts by Balbed and two other musicians, vocalist Aaron L. Myers […]

July 20, 2020 0

Announcing...

Introducing: Freedom Summer Sessions, a series of digital concerts and conversations with D.C. artists

We find ourselves at a crossroads in the centuries-long struggle against racism and the state-sanctioned brutalizing of Black lives. For the jazz community, the activist energy feeding this moment is nothing new, but it certainly has been renewed. And that’s doubly true here in D.C. — which is both the nation’s capital and an important cultural […]

July 14, 2020 3

Features

For Vernard Gray, supporting jazz meant strengthening his community in Southeast D.C.

For over 50 years, Vernard R. Gray served as a pillar of D.C.’s cultural landscape: organizing art exhibitions, presenting jazz, taking photographs, mentoring young people. He would have turned 79 years old this week, but up until the moment he died, this past January, he was working ceaselessly to expand opportunities and visibility for artists […]

July 10, 2020 0

News

Seven Tones Project brings musicians and filmmakers together (virtually) to celebrate Duke Ellington

After working on a World War I documentary for four years, D.C.-area filmmaker Paul Glenshaw and his filming partner Darroch Greer went looking for a subject for their next project. They found it in the music of Duke Ellington. And they found themselves inspired to go beyond straightforward filmmaking, focusing instead on fostering collaboration between […]

June 29, 2020 0

News

Eighteenth Street Lounge to close after decades as a D.C. nightlife mainstay

A late-night haven for jazz in D.C. will disappear after the popular nightclub Eighteenth Street Lounge announced this week that it would close “indefinitely” in its current location after the pandemic. ESL operated for 25 years in a townhouse mansion near Dupont Circle. On weekends, the club drew an ever-present queue that often snaked halfway […]

June 27, 2020 0

Features

‘He was very powerful, but he was not loud:’ D.C.’s jazz community remembers Brother Ah

Brother Ah spent his life dedicated to music. He was a multi-instrumentalist, an educator, a radio DJ, a philosopher. And as his colleagues in the D.C. community attest, it was that flexibility — that willingness to serve the music in any way that was needed — that left an impression on all of them. Brother Ah, […]

June 24, 2020 0

News

DC Jazz Festival hosts a week of live webcasts to benefit local musicians

The DC Jazz Festival, held annually in June, is postponed this year until at least the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the festival has announced a special online series every day next week, from this Sunday through June 29, under the “DCJazzFest From Home” brand. The DCJF is partnering with Live From Our […]

June 19, 2020 0