Bearsville Jazz & Art Festival at Bearsville Park
Bearsville Jazz & Art Festival at Bearsville Park
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Featuring Jay Collins Trio, Steve Gorn & Eric Archer, Steve Gardenas & Freddie Bryant
+ Live Painting Demo & Auction from Woodstock School of Art
Doors: 11am Show: 12pm
Advance Tickets: $5 – $25. Day of Show: $10 – $30
100% of the cover charge supports our musicians.
FREE PRIZE DRAW: buy your tickets online and be entered into our free prize draw with the chance to win dinner for 2 at the Bear Cafe, plus 2 tickets to any show of your choice for 2023, at Bearsville Theater!
Celebrate Labor Day Weekend in the Park at Bearsville Theater with Fabulous Jazz plus Painting demonstrations by the Woodstock School of Art in the heart of the Catskills.
DELICIOUS FOOD, HANDCRAFTED DRINKS & COCKTAILS!
We have plenty of comfortable seating on luxe outdoor sofas, plus sun umbrellas and lawn games, our new educational Nature Trail and access to the tinkling Sawkill Creek.
Chairs and picnic blankets are welcome.
A great day out for all the family.
ART AND MUSIC
Our Second Annual Bearsville Jazz Festival covers a lot of ground. Our Creekside Festival showcases three superb ensembles on the outside stage, underneath white pines and sycamores. Enjoy an afternoon of fine outdoor entertainment amongst the beauty of the Fall colors.
To celebrate the importance of Jazz to Woodstock, and to mark this launch year, two of the leading faculty members of the Woodstock School of Art will be live-painting the musicians during the afternoon, and auctioning off their work in the evening to raise money for the WSA.
Jazz in the Park – an Afternoon of Music and Art
1. Jay Collins Trio with Matt Finck and Adam Cote – Wind and Guitar
Woodstock resident and longtime favorite, Jay Collins, has credentials that include affiliations with Gregg Allman, the Levon Helm Band, Little Feat, Donald Fagen and Boz Scaggs. A solid artist in many genres, Jay has contributed to albums with Jacky Terrasson, Andrew Hill, Bobby Sanagria and LeRoy Vinnegar. A multi-instrumentalist he glides effortlessly from sax to flute to keyboard to vocals…and back again. Accompanied by Matt Finck on guitar and Adam Cote on acoustic bass, they open the afternoon with favorite songs spanning blues, be-bop and soul.
2. Steven Gorn and Eric Archer – Flute and Guitar
Grammy winner and five-time Grammy nominee, Steve Gorn plays music that combines world music with the soul of classical Indian music. He makes fusion music accessible to western ears, and has contributed to world music and jazz projects with Paul Simon, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Winters and Karl Berger.
3. Steve Cardenas and Freddie Bryant – Guitars
Two tremendously experienced and respected NYC based jazz guitarists with credentials in jazz and world music that cover everything from high profile composition through international touring to east and west coast jazz camps, workshops, and faculty for the New School in NYC and the California Institute of the Arts. With musical chops that include leading their own bands, releasing many albums as band leaders, and playing with the Mingus Orchestra (Freddie) and Woodstock’s own Jazz Royalty –Carla Bley and Steve Swallow (Steve) these Jazz Masters will deliver an amazing, one of a kind performance that may never be repeated.
Accessible appealing music played beneath the pine trees, beside the Sawkill Creek, in the grounds of the historic Bearsville Theater.
Bearsville Jazz Fest 23 is the second annual jazz festival featuring some of the Woodstock areas finest musicians as well as top tier guitarists from New York City. Jazz has been at the heart of Woodstock’s music scene since the mid-sixties, like a mysterious eddie creeping along our musical river’s bank, mixing and morphing with everything it touches. And it touched many lives, both artists and audience –It’s a long lineage of players bounding and rebounding in true jazz style.
PRODUCTION. This first Bearsville Jazz Festival has been curated and produced by Joel Harrison, a guitarist/ composer/ writer/ and producer Joel is the founder of the Alternative Guitar Summit which hosts a guitar camp in Big Indian every summer
Bearsville continues to celebrate its great music heritage with the Jazz.& Art Festival being the third in a series of outdoor events for 2023. May saw the annual Bluegrass Festival over Memorial Day Weekend, and 4th July Weekend the Bearsville Folk Festival. We are delighted that all our events, have been so well supported by our local community.
