From Tuesday, May 27, through Sunday, June 1, the streets of Jersey City will be filled with jazz. It’s Jersey City Jazz Week, followed by the Jersey City Jazz Festival, and a concluding Party Jam Session with drummer Winard Harper and Friends at Moore’s Lounge.
Some of the highlights include: Vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton at the Junto Attic Bar on Tuesday, May 27; and pianist Renee Rosnes’ Artemis quintet, featuring trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Noriko Ueda, and drummer Allison Miller; and vocalist Tyreek McDole, performing at The Clubhouse by Ford’s Gin on Saturday, May 31.
Fulton, who appeared in March at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison, NJ, recorded an album last May with saxophonist Cory Weeds on Cellar Music called Every Now and Then. Reviewing it for DownBeat, Ted Panken wrote: “Fulton self-accompanies and solos on piano with harmonic sophistication, impeccable chops, a risk-friendly attitude, and an idiosyncratic conceptual range spanning Bud Powell, Erroll Garner, and several other way stations, refracted into her own argot.”
Artemis, which appeared on the cover of Jersey Jazz Magazine in March 2021, was voted Jazz Group of the Year in 2023 and 2024 by DownBeat. The Jersey Jazz article appeared shortly after the launch of Artemis’ first album on the Blue Note label. Commenting on the album release, Blue Note President Don Was said: “On a sunny August afternoon in 2018, I was among the thousands of fans at the Newport Jazz Festival who had their minds blown by Artemis.” (Photo above, from left: Glover, Miller, Rosnes, Ueda, and Jensen).
McDole (photo below) won the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition in November 2023. He was featured as the Rising Star in the December 2023 issue of Jersey Jazz. Vocalist Jane Monheit, one of the Sarah Vaughan judges, said, “I was simply astonished by the gorgeous quality of Tyreek’s instrument. He had a beautiful feel and is already a true entertainer at his young age. The music world better get ready.”
For more information about the week of jazz in Jersey City or to order tickets, log onto JerseyCityJazzFestival.com.
ARTEMIS PHOTO BY EBRU YILDIZ
TYREEK MCDOLE PHOTO BY SHAKIRU BOLA OKOYA
