The Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival is returning Saturday, July 16 live and in-person! The 2022 Festival will be held at Saunders Park Greene (39th & Powelton) from Noon-7 p.m. and promises to be the best one yet.

The all-day event, which celebrates West Philadelphia and jazz musicians, is free and open to the public. It is organized by People’s Emergency Center (PEC), The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and a committee of community members, with technical assistance from Nu Millennium Media Productions.

The headliner this year is the Orrin Evans Quartet, performing from the TD Bank Main Stage. The Quartet is led by none other than pianist, composer, and independent recording artist Orrin Evans, gracing the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival stage for the first time. Continue Reading

People’s Emergency Center (PEC) brings jazz musicians and artists from the Lancaster Avenue Jazz and Arts Festival for a preview of their big event on July 16th! Stop by The Porch at 30th Street Station this Friday, April 22 between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. to browse the art exhibitions (and meet the artists) and to hear a performance by the Mike Boone Quartet in conjunction with The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia.

Pitruco brick oven pizza will be set up and selling delicious pizzas. Last year’s event drew dozens of guests to The Porch to hear the Jazz stylings of Kenny Sykes and the Ivory Keys Band (pictured).

For updates on the free, live, in-person, Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival on Saturday July 16, visit: https://www.lancasteravephilly.com/jazzfest.html.

Photo courtesy of PEC.

The annual Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival will return virtually this year and will be streaming live at lancasteravephilly.com/jazzfest beginning at noon this Saturday, Sept. 18. The festival offers a tribute to Grover Washington, Jr.

This is the 15th season for the festival, organized by staff at People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and a planning committee of neighborhood residents.

Musicians in the lineup must perform at least one piece by the Philadelphia-based saxophonist, known for hits like “Magic Man” and “Just the Two of Us.” The Grover Washington Jr. Tribute Legacy Band headlines the event. Other performers include Glenn Bryan and Friends, The Lady Hoofers Tap Ensemble, Denise King and Friends, Chris Aschman and Trinidelphia, TC THE 3RD, and Greg Moore and Actual Proof. The line-up was curated by Leo Gadson of The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia. Continue Reading

This year’s free Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival offers a family-friendly Jazz showcase featuring the “Hometown Sound of Philadelphia Jazz.” Philadelphia Tenor saxophonists Bootsie Barnes and Sam Reed will headline the 2019 Festival on Saturday, July 20. The event takes place starting at noon in Penn Presbyterian Medical Center’s Saunders Park Greene, 39th and Powelton Avenue.

Hosted by People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and PEC Community Development Corporation (PECCDC), this marks the 13th year that this annual event has taken place, which has grown from a few hundred attendees to 4,000.

The Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia has curated an exceptional lineup of jazz musicians performing on the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival stage. In addition to Barnes and Reed, this year’s lineup includes jazz performers Jamal Jones & the Bureau of Sonic Wonderland Jazz Orchestra, Glenn Bryan & Friends, Geraldine Oliver, Chris Oatts, and Jonathan Michel. The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble will also be back by popular demand.  Continue Reading

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Saxophonist, educator and composer Tim Warfield will headline the 2018 Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival, which will get underway in Penn Presbyterian Medical Center’s Saunders Park Greene, 39th and Powelton Avenue on Saturday, July 21, beginning at noon.

Hosted by People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and PEC Community Development Corporation (PECCDC), this marks the 12th year that this annual event has taken place. This year the FREE Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival offers a family-friendly jazz showcase featuring the best of Philadelphia and beyond. In addition to headliner Tim Warfield with his Organ Band featuring Terell Stafford, there is an exceptional lineup of jazz musicians curated by the Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia.  Continue Reading

Jaleel Shaw’s Band performed at the 11th Annual Lancaster Ave Jazz & Arts Festival in July 2017. (Photo by Kevin Smith)

Come July, the Lancaster Avenue Jazz and Arts Festival, a great summer tradition in the Powelton neighborhood, will return to Saunders Park. The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will support this year’s festival with a Challenge America grant of $10,000.

The NEA has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of its first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. The Challenge America category features NEA support for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations – those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability, according to the announcement.  Continue Reading