FREE FEST: Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival Announces Full Schedule

Photograph by Andrzej Pilarczyk

The organizers of the annual Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival announced the headliners for the 2017 fest more than a week ago. But now they’ve revealed the complete line-up for the festivities, as well as the schedule of performance times.

The one-day free festival features five bands in concert at the Corning Preserve’s Jennings Landing in Albany from 1-9pm on Saturday, September 9.

Here are the details:

1pm: THE JECCO TRIO
Led by saxophonist Jeff Nania and keyboardist Lecco Morris on keyboard, the trio serves up a tasty menu of jazz, funk and fusion.

2:30pm: THE PIGGLY WIGGLIES
Led by trombonist Bryan Brundige, the band dishes out a vintage jazz dance party, dipping into the classic and not-so-classic nuggets from the early 1900s to the 1940s.

4pm: MICHAEL BENEDICT & BOPITUDE
Led by drummer Michael Benedict, the band – featuring pianist Wayne Hawkins, tenor saxophonist Dave Fisk, trumpeter Dylan Canterbury and bassist Pete Toigo on bass – cranks out a repertoire of hard-bop gems and nearly forgotten treasures. Benedict & Bopitude played the 2011 fest with an entirely different line-up of musicians.

5:30pm: SOMI
Born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, jazz vocalist Somi incorporates African legacies as a key ingredient to her world-jazz sound. She was one of the surprise hits of Albany’s 2010 jazz fest.

7pm: CHRISTIAN SCOTT ATUNDE ADJUAH
The trumpeter-composer-producer is a two-time Edison Award winner and Grammy nominee. His performance at the 2016 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival at SPAC was one of the highlights of the fest.