Richmond Jazz Festival This Weekend!

The 7th Annual Richmond Jazz Fest at Maymont starts Thursday – Sunday with big names in R&B, hip-hop and soul. Performers like Herbie Hancock, Diane Schuur and Al Jarreau, The Roots, Arrested Development and the Time  will entertain on multiple stages.  Tickets are $85 per day or $160 for a weekend pass.   Saturday and Sunday are the best days to attend.

Singer-songwriter Al Jarreau, winner of 7 Grammy Awards and 18 Grammy nominations over the past 50 years, will be here.  He calls himself a cardiologist……’I make people feel better. My music affects the heart.  It heals.  Just read my mail.”

At Maymont, Jarreau expects to perform music that spans his entire career. “My performance will include all the things that I do, some jazzy stuff, some R&B, some pop. It will kind of describe my history.”

Jarreau will also focus on some Brazilian music. “Brazil changed my life,” he said. “I was a stand-up jazz singer with a trio, like Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett and Diana Krall and even George Duke. Until I got hit by the wave of Brazilian music that came over to America. It changed me. It turned me into this guy who began to sing vocal percussion stuff. That’s my thumbprint, as an artist. That’s what I’m known for. There are some guys who think they invented it with beatbox, but they’re wrong!”

At 76 years old,  he is still actively writing and taking on new projects.

For the full schedule of events:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_02ed0ec2-7f9f-545f-bd58-7c850bf224fe.html