Charlie Parker Jazz Festival returns for 32nd year: ‘No better place than Harlem for jazz and art’
HARLEM, Manhattan (PIX11) — What do you get when you combine art and music festivals in Harlem? You get a fabulous day in Marcus Garvey Park.
It was the 32nd annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, a three-day tradition for jazz lovers to pay tribute to one of the greatest saxophonists ever.
Charlie Parker may have been born in Kansas City, but he played in New York City jazz clubs most of his life. He died at age 34.
People around the country, like Don Hyman from Albany, attend this jazz festival.
“This is the best festival,” Hyman told PIX11 News.
“There’s no better place to hear jazz than in Harlem,” Kathy Jackson told PIX11 News.
Near the SummerStage amphitheater was a pop art exhibit where Wilhelmina Grant-Cooper displayed a sculpture she created of a trombone with gloved manikin hands playing the instrument.
“It’s an homage to Melba Liston, a female trombonist born in 1926 when there weren’t many women playing the trombone or composing music, which she also did,” Grant-Cooper told PIX11 News.
Grant-Copper’s tribute was just one of the many art pieces displayed at Marcus Garvey Park.
Fifteen Harlem-based artists, from the emerging to the well-established, had a wide range of techniques and textures on display.
Laura Gadson, a quilt artist; Debbie Taylor-Kerman; and Thomas Heath, both painters, were three of the many participants.
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