Joe Knipes
June 7, 2017 By Jason Cohen
The third annual Jackson Heights Jazz Festival takes place in July and will feature four artists at three local venues.
Last year the concert series drew large crowds and Joe Knipes, the event’s founder, is hoping to build on that momentum.
The festival will be broken up into four individual concerts, beginning with a performance at Espresso 77 (35-57 77th Street) by Jazz Triangle at 9 pm, July 6.
On July 8, the festival will continue at the Jackson Heights Library (35-51 81st Street) where Javier Arau will perform at 2:30 pm. That same evening, Ed Fuqua will be playing at Espresso 77 at 9 pm.
The festival will conclude with King Solomon Hicks playing at Travers Park on Sunday, July 9 at 4 pm. His concert is part of the Summer Sundays music series.
All of the artists are Jackson Heights residents except Hicks.
Knipes said he founded the festival as a way to display the music that Jackson Heights has to offer. He explained that a couple years ago he began bumping into musicians and had no idea they resided in the community.
“It turned out there was an abundance of really good jazz musicians who live in the neighborhood,” Knipes said.
Knipes then came up with an idea for a jazz festival and brought it to the attention of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group which supported it.
The event is free and for the first time has sponsors: Table Wine, Ferreira Foodtown and Sac’s Place of Jackson Heights are now backing it.
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5 Comments
The results speak for themselves! https://www.facebook.com/jacksonheightsjazz/
Thank you to all who came out and especially the performers and sponsors: Food Town, Table Wine, Sac’s Place of Jackson Heights!
Looking forward to it!
Jazz and the heights don’t mix
We have a wealth of great jazz musicians living here in JH, come hear for yourself July 6-9!
Thanks for spreading the word Jason! We hope to see lots of folks at all the events- come celebrate Jazz and Jackson Heights!