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News

Amy Bormet launches Into the Air, an intimate new concert series at a bookstore in downtown Hyattsville

When it comes to creating opportunities for her fellow working musicians, Amy Bormet has been more than willing to put her action where her mouth is. The pianist, vocalist, composer and DMV native founded the Washington Women in Jazz Festival in 2011, and has continued to support the D.C. jazz scene by amplifying the sounds […]

November 9, 2018 0

News

Alison Crockett celebrates the release of ‘Obrigada,’ an EP exploring Brazilian influences

The vocalist Alison Crockett is a one-woman powerhouse. You can hear the force of her entire body in the notes she sings, filling your ear with joy and uplift. Crockett has played in a range of groups and styles over her two-decade career: straight-ahead jazz, neo-soul, house music, acid jazz. Now she’s shape-shifting again. On […]

November 5, 2018 0

News

Drum innovator Milford Graves will make a rare D.C. appearance on Friday at the screening of ‘Milford Graves Full Mantis’

The drummer and polymath Milford Graves does not simply deal in rhythms and time, so much much as he deals in texture and space. Listen to his groundbreaking recordings with the New York Art Quartet — a group that also featured Roswell Rudd on trombone and John Tchicai on saxophone — and you can hear […]

October 25, 2018 0

Students and CapitalBop

Ever since CapitalBop was founded almost a decade ago, we have been fighting to make sure that everyone in D.C. has a place in our jazz scene. Young people are the future of the music, and it’s absolutely essential that they have spaces to listen, learn, and play life-changing music. How can I get involved? […]

October 17, 2018 0

News

Akua Allrich will celebrate 10 years of paying tribute to Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone

Akua Allrich performs with a rich, grounded vitality that often verges toward elation. She sings of hard love and heritage and devoted struggle, but there’s always a deep joy within her voice — some powerful life-force. In all those ways, Allrich reflects the influence of two great women who were not only singers, but storytellers […]

October 12, 2018 0

Announcing...

Sarah Hughes will take the saxophone to new heights at our next Spotlight Residency

It’s said so often these days: “That artist defies categorization.” But eclecticism and openness are easy to come by. Turning them into brilliant, personal work requires something special. Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Hughes, the DMV’s own, is a young artist who already achieves it. She draws on every element of her musical experience; in one […]

October 12, 2018 0

Videos

Watch the Elijah Jamal Balbed Quartet perform ‘Washington Hospital Center’ at our September Spotlight Residency

Our second-ever Spotlight artist-in-residence was Elijah Jamal Balbed, a prolific young voice on the tenor saxophone in D.C. Balbed showcased new, original music alongside three different ensembles over three nights, including a workshop performance at Sitar Arts Center and two shows in the intimate upstairs room at Local 16, an Afghan restaurant and nightclub in […]

October 10, 2018 0

Interviews

Danilo Pérez prepares to debut a new supergroup in D.C. with Chris Potter and Avishai Cohen

From the outset of his career, the pianist Danilo Pérez has sought to create music with a global resonance, whose harmonies draw tones from across the world. As a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra during the final years of the bebop pioneer’s life, Pérez traveled the world with one of the state department’s […]

October 9, 2018 0

News

Hillfest brings live jazz and much more to Capitol Hill this week

The Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation is teaming up this week with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation to host the second installment of its yearly Hillfest conference and festival. The events culminate on Saturday with a full day of free performances at Garfield Park, featuring the star vibraphonist Stefon Harris as well as an […]

October 3, 2018 0

News

Hear Mark G. Meadows cover ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder

The pianist and vocalist Mark G. Meadows has been known as a leading young figure on D.C.’s music scene since the release of his debut album, Something Good, in 2014. Since then he’s put out another fine record — To the People, named CapitalBop’s No. 2 album of 2016 — and performed in a range […]

September 21, 2018 0