Elian Elias, Gregory Porter to headline the 39th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival

What are you doing this Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29? Come listen to the best that jazz music has to offer at the 39th Annual Atlanta Jazz festival in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA. Headliners for the show include saxophonist Benny Golson, the sensuous stylings of vocalist Eliane Elias and soulful rhythms from Jamison Ross. Other performers on the card include Etienne Charles, Eugenie Jones, Gregory Porter and Alex Lattimore to name a few.
Three stages will be erected from which great music will emerge. The best part of it all is that admission is free! Shop from the vendors who will be on location and also enjoy the delicious food that will be available as well.

About the Artists

Benny Golson. Photo by Lisa Stein

Internationally famous jazz legend, composer, arranger, lyricist, and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson was born in Philadelphia, PA on January 25, 1929. During his career he has wowed audiences with performances throughout the US, Europe, South America, the Far East and Japan. He has arranged music for and performed with icons like Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Art Blakey. He has recorded over 30 albums that include jazz standards such as Killer Joe, I Remember Clifford, Along Came Betty, Stablemates, Whisper Not, Blues March, Five Spot After Dark, Are you Real?

Golson’s prolific writing includes scores for hit TV series and films such as M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible, Mod Squad and The Partridge Family. He has also composed and arranged music for Count Basie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Mama Cass Elliott, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, The Monkees, Quincy Jones, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Itzhak Perlman, Oscar Peterson, Lou Rawls, Eric Burden & The Animals, and Diana Ross. 

Eliane Elias. Photo by Bob Wolfenson

Grammy Award-winning pianist, singer, songwriter Eliane Elias is known for her distinctive style which blends her Brazilian roots and her sensuous voice. She started studying piano at age seven and her performing career began at seventeen, working with Brazilian singer-songwriter Toquinho. Her first album was a collaboration with Randy Brecker in 1984 entitled Amanda. Since then she’s released 25 albums, and garnered praise from critics and audiences worldwide, often topping the charts in Japan, France, Brazil and the US.

Highlights of Elias’ career include her nomination with Herbie Hancock for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Video for “The Way You Look Tonight” from her 1995 CD Solos and Duets; the lush 2008 CD Bossa Nova Stories which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Bossa Nova; 2011’s dazzling Light My Fire featuring compositions by Elias as well songs by The Doors, Stevie Wonder and Paul Desmond. Elias’ 2015 CD Made In Brazil won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album which was especially sweet since she served as producer, composer, lyricist, arranger, pianist and vocalist on the album.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz introduced Jamison Ross as an incredible young drummer in 2012 after he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Afterwards he toured and recorded with a variety of esteemed jazz artists including Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jonathan Batiste, Dr. John, and Christian McBride.
Jamison, his joyous 2015 soul-jazz debut, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The album presents him not only as a jazz musician who commands the drums, but also as a gifted composer, bandleader and singer. In fact, Ross sings on ten of the disc’s 12 sensational tracks.

“When I won the Monk competition, no one there knew that I was a singer,” says Ross, before revealing that he began singing in his grandfather’s church while growing up in Jacksonville, FL. “I grew up around the spirit of music but with hardly any level of formal education,” he recalls. With the support of his mother, Ross studied music, eventually earning a master’s degree in jazz studies.

Gregory Porter - Photo by Shawn Peters

Sponsors for this year’s Atlanta Jazz Festival include MARTA, PNC Bank, Loews Atlanta Hotel, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Standard Press.  Media Partners are ArtsATL.com, Atlanta Daybook, Atlanta INtown, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine, Atlanta ShowGuide, Atlanta Tribune, Creative Loafing, Downbeat, INsite Magazine, Jazz Times, Jezebel, Reporter Newspapers, The Atlantan, WABE-FM, WAMJ-FM, WCLK-FM, and WRFG 89.3 FM. To find out how your company or organization can be featured at this year’s festival contact Laura Moody at the Office of Cultural Affairs at LMoody@AtlantaGa.Gov.