DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities announces 2024 music census

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities will put its support behind collecting the 2024 DC Area Music Census, a citywide canvass that aims to gather demographic data on the region’s various music professionals and artists. The commission will hold a launch event on Tuesday night for this year’s census at Songbyrd Music House […]

Samara Joy to headline 20th anniversary DC Jazz Festival this September

The DC Jazz Festival has announced headliners and other highlights for this coming September’s 20th-anniversary celebrations. Samara Joy, the 24-year-old phenom whose deep voice and fabulous command of the standards earns her constant comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, will be the lead headliner for the festival’s programming at the Wharf. This comes as a […]

5 D.C. jazz picks for March 2024

Whenever March rolls around, I cannot help but think back to this time four years ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States. The D.C. jazz scene weathered much that year, between venues shuttering, income all but disappearing, and cherished community members dying. Though deep scars remain, they are now counterbalanced by signs […]

The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival goes big for 15th anniversary

Arts organizations continue to feel squeezed by the limitations on post-pandemic arts funding, but Paul Carr still wants the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival to go big. Carr, a preeminent saxophonist and educator in the D.C. area, created the MAJF back in 2010 as a successor to Ronnie Wells’ legendary East Coast Jazz Festival, which ran from […]

5 live jazz picks for February in D.C.

Welcome to April, and Happy Black History Month! With it arrive some time-honored DMV traditions, like the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival as well as Transparent Productions’ annual presentation of Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble; more on that below. Luke Stewart (CB’s co-founder) returns to D.C. with his powerful Silt Trio — whose album The Bottom was […]

5 live jazz picks for January in D.C.

As the calendar turns, I want to wish all the readers of this column continued health in the coming year, and I hope you’ve found some time for restoration this holiday season. In that spirit of meaningful rest, many venues in D.C. are taking the first week of the year easy. But January still provides […]

CapitalBop’s best D.C. jazz albums of 2023

For the past few years, our introduction to this annual tradition has followed a familiar theme: It’s been a tough year, but the city’s musicians — and the recordings they’ve put out — have given us reason for hope and proof of resilience. Now, almost four years after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, we can confidently […]

5 live jazz picks for December in D.C.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and by that, I mean that we in the D.C. area are enjoying the last month we’ve got before a major election year gets underway. Those dreading the events to come between now and next November can find some frosty comfort in the many Christmas and […]
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