22 ◆ Midcity DC | June 2011

Festival Time AgainTh e DC Jazz Festival leads off

June with hot licks and perfor-mances in several venues around town, and master classes by the likes of Cyrus Chestnut, Anto-nio Hart and many others. Jazz n’ Families Fun Days highlight the fi rst weekend of the festival June 4 and 5 at the artsy Phillips Col-lection in downtown DC with performers including Michael Bowie, the Herman Burney Trio, Sousa Middle School Dance En-semble, the James King Quartet, Sin Miedo and Susan Priester.

Will Smith and his W.E.S. Group are at the Jazz meets Hip Hot concert at Th e ARC June 8 in Southeast. Legendary bass-ist Butch Warren is at the Black Fox Lounge and renowned pianist Wayne Wilentz is at Utopia June 9. Th e Heath Brothers, Jimmy, the saxophonist and Tootie, the drum-mer, have a two-night run at Bo-hemian Caverns June 9 and 10.

Young stars Th e Jolley Broth-ers are at B Smith’s June 10 and the Warner Th eater on June 11

features Bobby McFerrin and the Howard University Afro Blue Re-union Choir. Sunday June 12 fea-tures the National Mall concert at the Sylvan Th eater, with Roy Har-grove, the Claudia Acuña Quartet, the Eddie Palmieri All-Star Salsa Orchestra and Frederic Yonnet.

Monday night June 13 the DC Jazz Festival and the Kennedy Center present “A Night in Treme:

Th e Musical Majesty of New Orleans.” According to festival information, “the rich musical tapestry of New Orleans is brought to life with performers from the wildly popular HBO television series Treme … the concert fea-tures the Rebirth Brass Band; Mardi Gras Indian Chief and alto saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., sing-er and trumpeter James Andrews, clarinetist Dr. Michael White and funky trombonist Big Sam Wil-liams.” Go to dcjazzfest.org for complete informa-tion on performers, show times and venues.

A BelatedHappy Happy

A belated but sincere happy anniversary to what we are sure is, for now, D.C.’s only resident, weekly big band, which turned one year old in April: Th e Bohe-mian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. Th e band (see bohemiancavernsjaz-zorchestra.com) was launched on Monday, April 19, 2010 with a live broadcast on WPFW, playing to a packed house in one of D.C.’s most venerable jazz venues. In the year since, more than 2,000 people have attended what has become an increasingly popular Monday night event, according to orchestra information.

“Th e band has established it-self quickly as a reliable and excit-ing weekly performance, drawing a consistently full house of regulars and newcomers every Monday,” said co-director Brad Linde, in a statement.

Month of PianistsA brief note to highlight that

June is certainly a month for pia-nists, with birthdays including those for Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Geri Allen, Jaki Byard, Erroll Garner and ...

by Steve Monroe

June Highlights:Antonio Hart, June 8, Bohe-mian Caverns. Braxton Cook Quartet, June 9, Twins Jazz … Jimmy & Tootie Heath, June 10-11, Bohemian Cav-erns … Larry Brown Quin-tet, June 14, Blues Alley … Arnold Sterling, Steve No-vosel, June 17, Westminster Church … Jim Snidero, June 24, Twins Jazz … Jon Fad-dis, June 24, Blues Alley … Warren Wolf, Lyle Link, June 24, Westminster Church.

June Birthdays:Josephine Baker, Dakota Staton 3; Oliver Nelson, Anthony Braxton 4; Monty Alexander 5; Jimmie Lunc-eford, Grant Green 6; Tal Farlow, Tina Brooks 7; Kenny Barron 9; Chick Corea, Geri Allen 12; Jaki Byard, Erroll Garner 15; Lucky Thompson 16; Eric Dolphy 20; Jamil Nasser 21, Milt Hinton 23; Reggie Workman 26; Andrew Hill 30.

out and about + Music

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove performs June 12 on the National Mall during the DC Jazz Festival.

Wayne Wilentz, purveyor of sizzling Latin jazz, performs at Utopia during the DC Jazz Festival.

Andrew Hill. Not familiar with Andrew Hill? A mon-ster of an artist, check out the late Hill at andrewhill-jazz.com. Th is listener’s fa-vorite Hill recording? Maybe “Timelines,” 2006, since that was the year I saw him, for the only time, and was mes-merized, in New York at the Blue Note.

Codas…It was sometimes diffi cult

to be upbeat and spiritual and fi lled with the wonder of just knowing Hodari Abdul Ali during the period of his se-vere illness -- including the honorary event at Busboys and Poets -- and his ultimate death last month. I remem-ber many years ago during a diffi cult time for me person-ally when I fi rst came back to DC, being able to tune in to his Freedom Sounds show on WPFW, and how much I looked forward toit and enjoyed it. Later I came to know him and stopped by his Pyramid Book Stores often. His wisdom and joy enriched, and continues to enrich, our planet.

More kind remembranc-es for homegrown saxophon-ist George Botts, saxophon-ist, now also gone to join the ancestors. As reported on the Washington Jazz Network web site, Botts passed away last month after a career of gigging with, among oth-ers, Benny Goodman, Bil-lie Holiday, John Coltrane, Gene Ammons, and Betty Carter, as well as tours with Dinah Washington. We caught his big, brassy tenor sound most recently a couple of years back with Buck Hill at a DC Jazz Festival event at the Lincoln Th eater ◆

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June 12, 2011, 2:00-5:00 PMLincoln Theatre,

1215 U Street, NWTickets $25

For More Informationcall 202-483-8433

11th AnnualAmerican

ClassicWoman of theYear PageantSeniors 55 and Over