Now in its 35th year, the Atlanta Jazz Festival is including four Latin artists at this year’s event. The festival is scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28, at Piedmont Park.
Top-billed Tito Puente Jr. and Orchestra takes the stage Sunday, May 27, at 9 p.m. Mr. Puente and his orchestra played at the 30th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival and recently performed on the ABC-TV daytime drama “One Life to Live.”
Mr. Puente is continuing in his father’s footsteps. Tito Puente Sr., the “King of Latin Music,” known for his mambos and Latino jazz pieces who died on June 1, 2000, helped popularize in the United States the sounds that are known as “salsa” music.
The Edy Martinez Jazz Orchestra will perform at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, May 26. Mr. Martinez’s music can be heard in movie soundtracks like “Married to the Mob” and “Manhattan by Numbers.” He was commissioned by United Artists to produce adaptations for the music of the James Bond 007 movies.
The Nelson Ramos & Son Jazzy Orchestra is scheduled to perform on Sunday, May 27, at 5 p.m. The orchestra was featured at the Barack Obama Mambo Inauguration Party in 2008, the 2007 New Orleans Jazz Festival with Ashe Son Cuban Group, and the 1992 Atlanta Jazz Festival.
The Atlanta-based Marea Alta band under the direction of Venezuelan jazz musician J. Santiago Nunez is scheduled to perform Latin pop jazz on Monday, May 28, at 3:30 p.m.
The Atlanta festival, one of the nation’s largest jazz festivals, began in 1978 and often attracts as many as 100,000 attendees each day. Jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone have performed here in the past.
This year’s event will feature nationally acclaimed artists and local acts, a youth jazz band competition and an entertainment zone for children.
The festival is free and open to the public. It begins on Saturday, May 26, at 11:00 a.m.
For more information, go here.
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