From Peabody Award Winning Producer Jim Luce, A spiritual celebration of Christmas with jazz pianist Geri Allen and her new recording, A Child is Born, featuring Geri on the Fazioli Piano. Special appearances by Dr. Dwight Andrews, composer, musician, educator, and minister, Producer Kunle Mwanga, Artist Kabuya Pamela Bowens, creator of the "Black Madonna" and others. Jim Luce host.

Montclair Jazz Festival, produced by Jazz House Kids

S. Epatha Merkerson, Christian McBride, John Scofield, Melissa Walker, Bruce Williams, and Chuchito Valdes headline two hours of compelling live jazz performance from Montclair, New Jersey.

The Montclair Jazz Festival is supported in part by Stage Sponsors City National Bank and North Coast Brewing Co.; Artist Tent Sponsors Arctic Glacier, The Pinnacle Companies, LLC, and Official Airlines Sponsor United; and Supporting Sponsors National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. 

With a wide range of rich, multi-octave vocal textures, Melissa Walker possesses the unique gift of impeccable phrasing and cohesive unity with the musicians backing her. Melissa's anchored and wide-open musicianship mirrors her dual cultural heritage. Born the youngest of three sisters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where her father played professional football and parents eventually went on to earn doctorate degrees, Melissa graduated from Brown University intending to enroll in law school. But the legal life was not to be! The lure of the excitement of the unique jazz movement in New York City was too much to resist, and it wasn’t long before she became associated with some of the best names of the idiom, including Hank Jones, Gary Bartz,  Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Stefon Harris, Ray Brown and others.  Asked what stirs her to achieve what The Washington Post called her “all-enveloping” mastery of a song, Melissa has said, “I think of songs as stories. They represent and convey our universal expectations about love, joy, longing, loss, regret, roads taken and not taken. Songs capture the essence of our spirits and help define our spiritual life; they are celebrations of what we've done and who we are. They are my gifts to the people round the world who have heard and supported me, who love jazz, who hold dear the art of the song.”

Bassist extraodinaire, composer, arranger, educator, curator and administrator, Christian McBride, has been one of the most important and most omnipresent figures in the jazz world for 20 years. Beginning in 1989, Christian McBride moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School and quickly was discovered by alto saxophonist, Bobby Watson, who took him on the road. It was the beginning of an awesome ride for the bassist who became a major player not only in jazz!

in R&B, Rock and even in the rarified world of classical music, he's worked with the best of the very best - Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. In the R&B world, he's played with and also arranged for Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Lalah Hathaway, and the one and only Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. In the pop/rock world, he's extensively collaborated with Sting, Carly Simon, Don Henley, and Bruce Hornsby. In the hip-hop/neo-soul world, he's collaborated with the Roots, D'Angelo, and Queen Latifah. In many other specialty projects, he's worked closely with opera legend Kathleen Battle, bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, the Shanghai Quartet and the Sonus Quartet.

Chuchito Valdés has emerged as a third generation modern day piano master with roots all the way back to the Tropicana Club in Havana. The Tropicana was Havana’s showcase from the night it opened Dec. 30, 1939. In its early days, it was the playground of Marlon Brando, Carmen Miranda, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier and others who helped make Tropicana one of the world's best known nocturnal destinations. One of the house arrangers at the Tropicana was pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Bebo Valdés. Valdés led two famous big bands, and along the way, he played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm called the Batanga.  While Bebo was working his craft, his son, Jesús Valdés was born on the 9th of October 1941. Jesus became known as a spectacular pianist and as Chucho Valdés, he himself would gain international acclaim as the founder of the supergroup Irakere, and for his own music. His son, Chuchito Valdés comes to Montclair direct from Cancun, and we welcome him today to close out the 2014 Montclair Jazz Festival. One of the house arrangers at the Tropicana was pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Bebo Valdés. Valdés led two famous big bands, and along the way, he played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm called the Batanga.  While Bebo was working his craft, his son, Jesús Valdés was born on the 9th of October 1941. Jesus became known as a spectacular pianist and as Chucho Valdés, he himself would gain international acclaim as the founder of the supergroup Irakere, and for his own music. His son, Chuchito Valdés comes to Montclair direct from Cancun, and we welcome him today to close out the 2014 Montclair Jazz Festival.

Montclair Jazz Festival, produced by Jazz House Kids

S. Epatha Merkerson, Christian McBride, John Scofield, Melissa Walker, Bruce Williams, and Chuchito Valdes headline two hours of compelling live jazz performance from Montclair, New Jersey.

The Montclair Jazz Festival is supported in part by Stage Sponsors City National Bank and North Coast Brewing Co.; Artist Tent Sponsors Arctic Glacier, The Pinnacle Companies, LLC, and Official Airlines Sponsor United; and Supporting Sponsors National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. 

With a wide range of rich, multi-octave vocal textures, Melissa Walker possesses the unique gift of impeccable phrasing and cohesive unity with the musicians backing her. Melissa's anchored and wide-open musicianship mirrors her dual cultural heritage. Born the youngest of three sisters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where her father played professional football and parents eventually went on to earn doctorate degrees, Melissa graduated from Brown University intending to enroll in law school. But the legal life was not to be! The lure of the excitement of the unique jazz movement in New York City was too much to resist, and it wasn’t long before she became associated with some of the best names of the idiom, including Hank Jones, Gary Bartz,  Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Stefon Harris, Ray Brown and others.  Asked what stirs her to achieve what The Washington Post called her “all-enveloping” mastery of a song, Melissa has said, “I think of songs as stories. They represent and convey our universal expectations about love, joy, longing, loss, regret, roads taken and not taken. Songs capture the essence of our spirits and help define our spiritual life; they are celebrations of what we've done and who we are. They are my gifts to the people round the world who have heard and supported me, who love jazz, who hold dear the art of the song.”

Bassist extraodinaire, composer, arranger, educator, curator and administrator, Christian McBride, has been one of the most important and most omnipresent figures in the jazz world for 20 years. Beginning in 1989, Christian McBride moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School and quickly was discovered by alto saxophonist, Bobby Watson, who took him on the road. It was the beginning of an awesome ride for the bassist who became a major player not only in jazz!

in R&B, Rock and even in the rarified world of classical music, he's worked with the best of the very best - Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. In the R&B world, he's played with and also arranged for Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Lalah Hathaway, and the one and only Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. In the pop/rock world, he's extensively collaborated with Sting, Carly Simon, Don Henley, and Bruce Hornsby. In the hip-hop/neo-soul world, he's collaborated with the Roots, D'Angelo, and Queen Latifah. In many other specialty projects, he's worked closely with opera legend Kathleen Battle, bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, the Shanghai Quartet and the Sonus Quartet.

Chuchito Valdés has emerged as a third generation modern day piano master with roots all the way back to the Tropicana Club in Havana. The Tropicana was Havana’s showcase from the night it opened Dec. 30, 1939. In its early days, it was the playground of Marlon Brando, Carmen Miranda, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier and others who helped make Tropicana one of the world's best known nocturnal destinations. One of the house arrangers at the Tropicana was pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Bebo Valdés. Valdés led two famous big bands, and along the way, he played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm called the Batanga.  While Bebo was working his craft, his son, Jesús Valdés was born on the 9th of October 1941. Jesus became known as a spectacular pianist and as Chucho Valdés, he himself would gain international acclaim as the founder of the supergroup Irakere, and for his own music. His son, Chuchito Valdés comes to Montclair direct from Cancun, and we welcome him today to close out the 2014 Montclair Jazz Festival. One of the house arrangers at the Tropicana was pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Bebo Valdés. Valdés led two famous big bands, and along the way, he played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm called the Batanga.  While Bebo was working his craft, his son, Jesús Valdés was born on the 9th of October 1941. Jesus became known as a spectacular pianist and as Chucho Valdés, he himself would gain international acclaim as the founder of the supergroup Irakere, and for his own music. His son, Chuchito Valdés comes to Montclair direct from Cancun, and we welcome him today to close out the 2014 Montclair Jazz Festival.