Sunday's opening shot

Setting up for the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival this morning... happening from 3-7 today (they'll let people in the seats starting at 2) in Tompkins Square Park. Find the lineup here.

And this is a free show.

Reminders: The Charlie Park Jazz Festival comes to Tompkins Square Park on Sunday

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival will be in Tompkins Square Park this Sunday, Aug. 27. 

Here's what to expect via the City Parks Foundation website... 

This bill of all-star musicians is led by alto saxophonist and bandleader Charles McPherson, who famously performed with Charles Mingus in the '60s and recorded ensemble renditions of Charlie Parker works for the soundtrack to the 1988 Parker biopic "Bird." He performs here with Terell Stafford, a veteran of his quintet and a gifted, versatile trumpet player with an adventurous expression of lyricism.

Vincent Herring's Septet, Something Else!, a new group that draws its name from Cannonball Adderley's 1958 classic Blue Note LP. The portfolio of music played by "Something Else" includes some of the most iconic toe-tapping Soul Jazz Songs ever created from the books of Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Timmons, Horace Silver, Bob James, Pee Wee Ellis, Quincy Jones and many more. 

Chelsea Baratz's HERA collective — named after the Olympian queen of the gods — is a unique group of groundbreaking female artists and bandleaders assembled to showcase original works. More than just an ensemble of talented players, each musician that performs with HERA has her own band, her own original music, and her own sound, like featured vocalist and Growing Up Jazz founder Andromeda Turre. 

Opener Michael Mayo, a student of jazz legends Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, wields a commanding and otherworldly voice that’s taken him around the world and back again.

And because someone will ask: The city will be bringing in porta potties for the expected crowds, as they've done in the past (and because the field house is closed for renovations).

The festival started in Tompkins Square Park in 1993 ... taking place near or on Parker's birthday on Aug. 29. Additional dates were added in Harlem in 2000. 

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-1954. That residential building between Ninth Street and 10th Street is landmarked.   

Prepping for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Steven]

The stage for the 26th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival rolled into Tompkins Square Park yesterday... (find the lineup for the free show, which is 3-7 p.m. today, right here).

And this morning...



... and later this morning (added at 11:30 a.m.)...


[Photo by Steven]

Ahead of the show, Park workers yesterday filled in the tranquil pond/mud bath/T-Rex footprint, which looked like...



... to this...



Unfortunately, the infill didn't last... a tire track appeared later in the day...


[Photo by Goggla]

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Sunday in Tompkins Square Park

Time again for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival ... the 26th edition includes a date in Tompkins Square Park on Sunday from 3-7 p.m.

Gary Bartz — "hailed as one of the greatest alto saxophonists since Cannonball Adderley" — is the headliner.

Also on the bill, via SummerStage:

Audiences attending the show are in for a treat, as they’ll also hear longtime gospel, blues, and jazz pianist, Amina Claudine Myers, the boundary-breaking trio The Bad Plus, and UNHEARD, a piece honoring Charlie Parker featuring musicians Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, and Adam O’Farrill commissioned in association with The Joyce and George Wein Foundation under the artistic supervision of The Jazz Gallery.

The Jazz Festival will also have dates up in Marcus Garvey Park today and tomorrow.

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-54.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival set for Tompkins Square Park on Aug. 26

[Gary Bartz]

SummerStage announced its 2018 lineup yesterday... a list featuring more than 200 artists playing in venues citywide from May 17 to Oct. 7.

Included in the announcement: the 26th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which includes a date in Tompkins Square Park on Aug. 26 from 3-7 p.m.

Per SummerStage:

Hailed as one of the greatest alto saxophonists since Cannonball Adderley, Gary Bartz has made a name for himself in the jazz community. Performing alongside his quartet, Bartz will be in concert at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival ...

Audiences attending the show are in for a treat, as they’ll also hear longtime gospel, blues, and jazz pianist, Amina Claudine Myers, the boundary-breaking trio The Bad Plus, and UNHEARD, a piece honoring Charlie Parker featuring musicians Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, and Adam O’Farrill commissioned in association with The Joyce and George Wein Foundation under the artistic supervision of The Jazz Gallery.

Find the full SummerStage rundown here.

Sunday's parting shot

EVG reader Ronnie shared this photo from today's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park ... Ronnie noted, "it was a lovely, beautiful evening with a crowd I have not seen since the early 1990s and Wigstock!"

Bird Flies

Bird Flies

Bop! Shout! Fingers Pop!

Another bird flies in the park.

A jazz migration, people Hop!

Music passing through. Mark

that time once a year,

When people smile and cheer,

Saxophones soar, cymbals crash,

Improvisation worth more than cash.

People cool in fun clothes, a slick hat.

Sunday revelry, Angels scat.

Shades in attendance, no shadows cast,

We should have known it wouldn’t last.

Fold up that chair, head for the train,

Come back next year for Jazz, again, again …

•

peter radley

-----

The 25th annual Charlie Park Jazz Festival is today in Tompkins Square Park from 3-7 p.m.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival comes to Tompkins Square Park on Sunday

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is now underway ... and the annual tribute to the eponymous late saxophonist comes to Tompkins Square Park for a free show Sunday from 3-7 p.m.

The Joshua Redman Quartet headlines a slate that also features “Sweet Poppa Lou” Donaldson, Tia Fuller and Alicia Olatuja. (Read the bios of the performers here.)

This is the 25th anniversary of the Festival, which each year coincides with Parker's birthday.

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-54.

Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival set for Aug. 27 in Tompkins Square Park

The City Parks Foundation announced the 2017 season of SummerStage earlier today... the programming includes the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park on Aug. 27. Joshua Redman is the headliner that Sunday afternoon.

Here's more on the Jazz Festival via the news release...

This year, SummerStage will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, New York City's annual salute to the eponymous late saxophonist. The festival, which each year coincides with Charlie Parker's birthday, takes place uptown in Harlem's historic Marcus Garvey Park and downtown in Tompkins Square Park, across the street from the apartment Parker called home.

This year, the festival has been extended to four days and will include Emmy Award-winning tap dance virtuoso Jason Samuels Smith, world-renowned Anat Cohen Tentet, jazz master Lee Konitz Quartet, slow-funk Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science, reverend drummer Louis Hayes, young American vocalist Charenee Wade, Grammy nominated Joshua Redman Quartet, modern jazz creative voice Lou Donaldson, saxophonist Tia Fuller of the all-female band touring with Beyoncé, vocalist Alicia Olatuja, and more.

You can find the full lineup of SummerStage here.

Parker photo by William P. Gottlieb

Reminders: The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is today in Tompkins Square Park

[Photo by Steven]

Crews are setting up the stage now for the free show today from 3-7 p.m.

Here's a preview via The New York Times:

Sunday’s program, at Tompkins Square Park, will feature a special triumvirate of Jack DeJohnette on drums, Dave Holland on bass and Jason Moran on piano; the singer Allan Harris; the alto saxophonist Grace Kelly; and the Donny McCaslin Quartet, recently acclaimed for its work with David Bowie.

Tompkins Square Park hosts the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival on Sunday

[Photo of Ron Miles in the Park last year by Stacie Joy]

Info on the 23rd annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival via the EVG inbox...

City Parks Foundation is proud to announce the 2016 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. The festival is New York City's annual salute to the legendary saxophonist, featuring contemporaries of Charlie Parker as well as young jazz musicians that continue to shape and drive the art form.

In a world of modern music — not just jazz — few figures loom as large or cast as long a shadow as saxophonist Charlie Parker, best known as "Bird" (short for "Yardbird") to generations of musicians. He was born in 1920 and almost 60 years since his death in 1955, he is universally celebrated for single-handedly inventing bebop and bringing jazz into the modern era.

The festival is particularly significant this year given the upcoming centennial of the musical dawning of the term “jazz,” as well as what would have been the 100th birthdays of late jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Ella Fitzgerald.

On Sunday in Tompkins Square Park, audiences will be introduced to DeJohnette - Moran - Holland, the first-time collaboration of influential jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette, innovative pianist Jason Moran, and prolific double bassist Dave Holland.

Listeners will be delighted by performances from award-winning jazz vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Allan Harris and acclaimed saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who will perform his newest album accompanied by his group.

The complete Charlie Parker Jazz Festival schedule can be found on the City Parks Foundation website here.

The Festival is 3-7 p.m. here on Sunday. The Festival is in Marcus Garvey Park tonight and tomorrow afternoon.

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-54.

Charlie Parker's neighbor is for sale on Avenue B for the 1st time in 50 years

[Image via Halstead]

As we first reported last Oct. 2, 151 Avenue B — the landmarked building where jazz great Charlie Parker once lived, arrived on the market for $9.25 million.

Now its next-door neighbor at No. 153 between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street is for sale.

Here's the pitch via the broker Halstead:

On the market for the first time in more than 50 years, this 23-foot wide, 5-story townhouse poses a rare opportunity to own an authentic piece of New York history in the vibrant and evolving East Village. Dating back to 1849, 153 Avenue B (located on Charlie Parker Place between East 9th and East 10th Streets) offers grand proportions, a brownstone facade topped by a boldly protruding cornice, and 12 large double-hung windows with exterior shutters framing views of Tompkins Square Park which sits across the street.



Endless possibilities to invest or live in this impressive property. Currently configured as 5 floor-through free market rental units, this is an incredible opportunity to transform the entire building into your dream single-family home in a prime park location; create an owner's duplex and maintain the upper floor rental units; or keep as a fully tenant-occupied investment property with opportunity to renovate and create a strong rent roll.

The garden floor unit was gut renovated in 2015 and is configured as a 2-bedroom featuring a private front door entrance and a newly refurbished backyard patio for relaxing or entertaining. The parlor through fifth floor units are configured as grand 3-bedroom loft-like spaces with soaring ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, and rich in pre-war architectural details. The fourth floor unit was gut renovated in 2014 ...

The roof offers dramatic unobstructed views of Tompkins Square Park and the surrounding neighborhood. Recent improvements to the building include a new coin-operated laundry room on the garden floor, updated hallways, new boiler and hot water heater, electrical system upgrades, and steel beam reinforcement project under the direction of a structural engineer and architect. Come visit 153 Avenue B this summer. This East Village treasure is not to be missed.

The asking price is $6.95 million.

As for No. 151, the listing is no longer active.

Continuing to jazz up the Charlie Parker Residence on Avenue B

The restoration work continues at 151 Avenue B between East Ninth Street and East 10th … not sure exactly what the workers are doing (no work permits are online that we could find).

Perhaps they are sprucing up the landmarked, circa-1849 building where jazz great Charlie Parker lived from 1950-1954. As we first reported on Oct. 2, No. 151 is for sale. Asking price: $9.25 million.

Although the listing notes that the buyer could turn the Gothic Revival-style townhouse (now with four residences) into a single-family home, No. 151 is triple-landmarked by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. So the new owner would have a few hoops to jump through to make any major renovations.

Updated 5:44 p.m.

Dave on 7th notes that the workers were doing a little stucco patching here…



Previously on EV Grieve:
The historic Charlie Parker Residence is for sale on Avenue B

The historic Charlie Parker Residence is for sale on Avenue B

The listing for 151 Avenue B between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street arrived on Streeteasy today. (Halstead is the broker, though the link appears not to work at the moment.)

Built circa 1849 and bordering Tompkins Square Park to the East, individually designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, The Charlie Parker Residence is a rare example of a Gothic Revival style townhouse. Original details include the double wood doors, a trefoil relief beneath the projecting box cornice, slender hood moldings above most windows and the well-preserved pointed archway with clustered colonettes that is surmounted by a prominent horizontal molding.

There are 4 full-floor apartments: Garden floor, former home of Jazz great, Charlie Parker, Parlor floor, the third floor and fourth floors, each with 2 bedrooms. The Penthouse, with a huge private deck, is set-back with 1 bedroom and extra loft space. Handled with care throughout the years, this elegant building holds court in the vibrant neighborhood of the East Village.

It also has the honor of 3 designations: The New City Landmarks Preservation Foundation, The State Register of Historic Places and The National Register of Historic Places. The archway is featured in Bricks and Brownstones by Charles Lockwood. Great for investors OR it can be converted into an owner's duplex with income or single family.

Price: $9.25 million.

According the Charlie Parker Residence website, Parker lived here from 1950-1954. "With Chan Richardson and their three children, Parker occupied the ground floor apartment at the height of his career."

Image via Wikepedia Commons

At the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park

It was a full house park Sunday afternoon for the 22nd annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival... EVG contributor was there for some of the action...




[Joe Lovano]


[Jon Batiste]


[Myra Melford]


[Michael Mwenso]


[Ron Miles]


[Rudresh Mahanthappa]

The Times checked in with a review...

[T]he festival doesn’t uphold bebop as a rigid absolute, or impose Parker’s music as a precondition. There tends to be a refreshing absence of formal tributes among the artists on the bill, and a healthy abundance of the informal kind, sometimes as fleeting and allusive as a scrap of melody shoehorned into a solo. Usually, that’s enough.

Still, there was a welcome charge in the air at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village on Sunday evening as the tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano unfurled a billowing, adroit improvisation, using elements of “Barbados,” a Parker tune. Leading a band with Leo Genovese on piano, Esperanza Spalding on bass and Lewis Nash on drums, Mr. Lovano was dipping into “Bird Songs” (Blue Note), his 2011 Parker-themed album.

Parker, who died in 1955 at age 34, lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-54.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is tomorrow in Tompkins Square Park

The city's annual salute to the legendary saxophonist is this weekend… with the show coming to Tompkins Square Park tomorrow (that would be Sunday).

Here's the lineup: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Joe Lovano (pictured), Myra Melford and Michael Mwenso.

Head to the Jazz Festival website for info on all the artists.

The free show is from 3-7 p.m.

The stage is set for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival today; port-a-potties too

The stage went up yesterday for the 22nd annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival … today at 3 in Tompkins Square Park. It is free. Find the artist info here.

Meanwhile, the port-a-potties arrived Friday afternoon. We forgot to post these under the headline "Exclusive First Look at the Jazz Festival Port-A-Potties." Next year OK?





Photos via Bobby Williams

The 22nd edition of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Sunday in Tompkins Square Park

That is true. And here is the lineup:

Kenny Barron / Cindy Blackman Santana / Craig Handy & 2nd Line Smith / Brianna Thomas

You can head to the SummerStage website here for more info on each artist.

The show is 3-7 p.m. in Tompkins Square Park … and it's free.

Off the Grid has more about the Festival … as well as the Charlie Parker Residence at 151 Avenue B right here.

And now if you have an hour to spare… then you can watch this BBC special on Parker…

All that jazz

Does anyone remember where I parked my portable stage last night? Oh! Workers have dropped off the stage for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival tomorrow (3-7) in Tompkins Square Park. Details here.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Sunday in Tompkins Square Park

The East Village portion of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Sunday from 3-7. The acts: Lee Konitz Quartet, Sheila Jordan, Christian Scott and Aaron Diehl Quartet. You can find all the details here.

Warm up...