Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Announces Lineup

Daniel Bernard Roumain Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Bernard Roumain

The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is back.

From Friday, June 4, through Sunday, June 13, the annual music marathon returns to various locations around the Queen City, centering on the Church Street Marketplace, organizers announced in a press conference on Tuesday. In 2020, BDJF pivoted to a fully virtual experience called the Burlington ReDiscover Jazz Festival. This year’s edition marks the first major live event to hit the Green Mountains since the coronavirus pandemic decimated the performing arts industry in March 2020.

BDJF 2021 will be scaled down from past years, but will nonetheless include a robust selection of local and regional artists, as well as local school band performances. Except for a few ticketed shows at Main Street nightclub Nectar’s and Church Street mainstay Halvorson’s Upstreet Café, all BDJF performances will be free to the public. See the full lineup below.

The festival kicks off on June 4 with an event called 50 Saxophones on the Burlington Waterfront. Led by local funk icon Dave Grippo, scores of local sax players will converge for the inaugural event.
While the bulk of BDJF shows will happen on the Church Street Marketplace, green spaces such as Roosevelt Park, Starr Farm Park & Playground and Smalley Park will also host performances. These include sets from Dwight & Nicole (Saturday, June 5), Kat Wright (Sunday, June 6) and Matthew Evan Taylor featuring JACK Quartet (Sunday, June 13). An extension of the Flynn’s 2020 event series, Hurly Burly, the park shows will feature artists performing on makeshift stages wheeled in on the back of flatbed trucks.

Additionally, the entire block of Main Street in front of the Flynn will become a Hurly Burly block party on Saturday, June 12, with performances from Ray Vega and his Latin Jazz Sextet, plus psych fusion outfit Barika.

Other performances of note include what are being called “conversations” between disparate artists who’ve never previously worked together. Conceived of and curated by Saint Michael’s College associate professor of art Bill Ellis, the unique pairings include saxophonist Brian McCarthy and rapper Edwin Owusu (fka S.I.N.siZZle), pianist Tom Cleary and Afro-jazz duo KeruBo‘s Irene Kerubo Webster, vocalist Amber deLaurentis and cumbia bandleader Maïz Sandoval, guitarists Paul Asbell and Mikahely, and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain with percussionist Gopal Niroula. Dates and times are TBA.