Charlie Parker Jazz Festival - A Max Roach Centennial Celebration: Calvin Hill Quartet

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, New York City’s annual salute to the eponymous late saxophonist, will return in its 31st year for a three-day celebration of live jazz in the neighborhoods near where Parker worked and lived, including Harlem’s historic Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Each year, some of the finest jazz musicians in the world are assembled who reflect “the Bird’s” musical individuality and genius, to promote appreciation for this highly influential and world-renowned artist.

Schedule:

6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Ancillary: A Max Roach Centennial Celebration: Calvin Hill Quartet + Film Screening: Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

Jackie Robinson Bandshell

6:30pm - 8:00pm: Concert

8:00pm - 8:30pm: QandA with Directors, Benjamin Shapiro and Sam Pollard Moderator, Ron Scott, jazz columnist with Amsterdam News

8:30pm: Film Screening

Calvin Hill Quartet

A stalwart player with a six-decade career, bassist Calvin Hill has long been an in-demand collaborator for creative figureheads in jazz, including McCoy Tyner, George Coleman, Dick Griffin, Joanne Brackeen and Pharoah Sanders, as well as a long run with Max Roach, whose centennial will be marked by this performance of Hill’s quartet, featuring Steve Johns (drums), Michael Cochrane (piano), and Joe Ford (saxophone).

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (2023)

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes is the story of a musician whose far-reaching ambitions were inspired and challenged by the inequities of the society around him. His stunningly diverse seven-decade career marked him as one of the great musical artists of the 20th century and a pioneering cultural activist at times when the nation was steeped in racism. The film follows Roach across a rich and complicated life, years of now-legendary achievement, deep personal struggle, and the price he paid for his outspoken views. His was an epic musical journey — from the revolutionary Jazz of the 1940s to the Civil Rights years, through experiments in hip hop, multi-media works, and beyond. Directors: Ben Shapiro, Sam Pollard / Music by: Christopher North / Production companies: Max Roach FIlm LLC; Black Public Media; American Masters Pictures