Annual Seacoast Jazz Festival

41st Annual Seacoast Jazz Festival featuring Alexa Tarantino
Presented by the River House Restaurant

The 41st Annual Seacoast Jazz Festival, in partnership with Seacoast Jazz Society, with presenting sponsor, Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club is back on the Wilcox Main Stage.

Prescott Park Arts Festival, in partnership with Seacoast Jazz Society, is delighted to present the annual festival that will feature a host of local, regional, and international talent, amplifying the different styles of jazz. The festival has a tremendous history on the seacoast. The first festival was held in 1983 under the name, Portsmouth Jazz Festival. For the last 26 years, it has been known as the Tommy Gallant Jazz Festival, to honor legendary local jazz pianist and composer, Tommy Gallant. It has now become the Seacoast Jazz Festival in the hopes to expand the festival’s reach in the future as a destination event featuring acclaimed jazz artists from around the globe.

The Seacoast Jazz Society was formed in 1990 and its mission is to promote jazz through community outreach and education, to support local musicians, and to provide scholarships for young artists.

For more information about the Seacoast Jazz Society, or to donate, please visit www.seacoastjazz.org.

Line-Up
12 pm: Soggy Po Boys with Celia Woodsmith
1:15 pm: Boston Blow Up featuring Donna McElroy
2:30 pm: Seacoast Jazz Band
3:45 pm: Consuelo Candelaria, Ron Savage, Ron Mahti trio with special guest Drika Overton
5:00 pm: Alexa Tarantino Quartet
* Rain Date: Sunday, August 25

Featuring Alexa Tarantino

Alexa Tarantino is an award-winning, vibrant, young jazz saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer, and educator. Alexa’s “high-octane [performance]” (Jazziz Magazine) and “sharply plotted but gracefully unencumbered straight-ahead jazz [compositions]” (The New York Times) establish her individual voice which shines through as a dynamic performer and educator. Tarantino was nominated as a “Rising Star Alto Saxophonist” by Downbeat Magazine’s 2022, 2021 and 2020 Critics’ Polls, and named one of the “Top 5 Alto Saxophonists of 2019” by the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll.

She can be seen touring and performing internationally as a saxophonist and flautist with the Alexa Tarantino Quartet, Cecile McLorin Salvant’s Sextet, and is the newest member of ARTEMIS, led by Renee Rosnes. Alexa has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles including the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Cecile McLorin Salvant’s OGRESSE, Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y and Big Band, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.

Firefly, Alexa’s third record for Posi-Tone Records released April 2021, hitting #6 on the JazzWeek charts. Her previous album, Clarity, peaked at #9 on the JazzWeek charts and landed at #54 for JazzWeek’s Top 100 records of 2020.

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