In honor of its 30th anniversary, the Blue Note Jazz Club is opening its doors throughout New York City during the month of June for the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival. More than 80 shows featuring many artists who have performed at the Blue Note for years will take the city by storm at this year's largest New York jazz festival.
The festival will feature a diverse group of high-profile artists including Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti, Nancy Wilson, Bobby McFerrin, Brian Wilson, The Roots, Chaka Kahn, Roberta Flack, El Gran Combo, Jon Hendricks, Kathleen Battle, McCoy Tyner, Youssou N'Dour, Bill Frisell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Madeleine Peyroux and many more. In addition to presenting a special series of shows at the Blue Note, the club has scheduled shows at the Beacon Theatre, Town Hall, BB King Blues Club & Grill, Highline Ballroom, Terminal 5, Joe's Pub, Mercury Lounge, Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, The Lehman Center for Performing Arts, and the Katonah Museum of Art.
"Thirty years ago, I never could have dreamed that the Blue Note would become what it is today," owner and operator Danny Bensusan said of his famed jazz club. "It wasn't easy to convince the artists to play here at first. We had help from some of the musicians who believed in what we were trying to do – Ray Brown and Dizzy Gillespie, in particular – and as we started bringing in bigger names, the reputation of the club grew. Once they played the Blue Note, they always wanted to come back, because there is an intimacy here between the audience and the musician that is appealing to everyone."
"To celebrate our 30th year, we're presenting musicians all over New York who have played the Blue Note since the beginning, as well as new ones who we hope will continue to come back for many years," Mr. Bensusan said of the festival. The Blue Note shows in particular will feature many of the club's long-time artists, like Jon Hendricks, who will be celebrating his 90th birthday, Lee Konitz, who performed at the Blue Note within the first few weeks of the club's opening, and Dave Brubeck among others.
