Jazz | The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

Dr. Lonnie Smith - Dr. Lonnie Smith is an unparalleled musician, composer, performer and recording artist. An authentic master and guru of the Hammond B-3 organ for over five decades, he has been featured on over seventy albums, and has recorded and performed with a virtual “Who’s Who” of the greatest jazz, blues and R&B giants in the industry. Consequently, he has often been hailed as a “Legend,” a “Living Musical Icon,” and as the most creative jazz organist by a slew of music publications.

Andy Bey - Andy Bey’s silky baritone has become one of the finest instruments in jazz, resonating through decades of American standards. A lyrical storyteller, he possesses “a film noir voice: languid, mysterious, and surpassingly beautiful” (The New York Times). Bay’s four-octave range starts at a low C and he is virtually alone today in his ability to summon the deep, manly burnish of some of the great band baritones, like Billy Eckstine.

Jeff Watts - Jeff Watts, the drummer they call “Tain,” spent his formative years with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and his compositional skills now command equal attention. he joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three Grammy Awards with the ensemble for Black Codes From The Underground, J Mood and Marsalis Standard Time – Volume 1.

Camille Thurman - Camille Thurman, multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, vocalist, composer and educator is a young musician emerging on the horizon, acquiring an impressive list of accomplishments that extend well beyond her years. Her lush, velvety, rich and warm sound on the tenor saxophone has eluded others to compare her sound to the likeness of tenor greats Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon and Lester Young to name a few.

Norma Miller - Norma Miller is one of the creators of the acrobatic style of swing dancing known as the Lindy Hop. As a child, she watched the dancers at the legendary Savoy Ballroom perched on the fire escape outside her mother’s Harlem apartment. When she was 12, she was “discovered” dancing outside the Savoy, and in 1934 was invited to join Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, soon to make an extended tour of Europe.

Samuel Coleman - Samuel Coleman is an Alvin Ailey School trained dancer and teacher, with a focus on lindy hop (swing) dancing. Coleman teaches in Harlem and Albany, and performs with the Big Apple Lindy Hoppers and the Rhythm Stompers. Coleman was a 2011 Frankie Manning Ambassador scholarship recipient.