69th Annual Newport Jazz Festival has a lineup that's sure to please

The 69th annual Newport Jazz Festival kicks of this weekend (August 4-6, 2023) at Fort Adams State Park in the heart of Newport, Rhode Island. Teeming with a lineup of artists who represent what’s great about music, the Newport Jazz Festival is nearly sold out with single day general admissions tickets available for Friday only.  Also on Friday night, drummer Nate Smith and Friends will headline a Friday night jam at the Jane Pickens Theater immediately following the festivities at the Fort. Tickets for Nate Smith’s Friday night set are available here while general admission tickets to Friday’s Festival schedule are available here .

Festival veterans such as Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Branford Marsalis (a late substitution for Kamasi Washington), Charles Lloyd and the festival’s Artistic Director Christian McBride, will once again grace the various stages while up and coming artists such as the 2023 Grammy Award Best New Artist winner Samara Joy (who performed a stellar set in her debut at last year’s festival), Domi and Beck (who also return for a second year after giving a memorable performance at the festival a few years ago), Endea Owens, Butcher brown, Cimafunk, Durand Jones, Camille Thurman and Darrell Green, Anderson. Paak as DJ Pee Wee, and Julius Rodriguez make their festival debut.  Other artists worth noting that will perform over the weekend include the uber-talent Thurdercat, Lakecia Benjamin, Claudia Acuña, Charles McPherson, Diana Krall, Orrin Evans, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller, and Somi.  See the complete festival schedule and line-up here.

As for what’s great about this year’s lineup and the music that will be performed across the festival’s four stages, it’s quite simple: if you’re open to it, you will be exposed to music and people that you may not have wanted to know, but you’ll have an experience that you’ll never want to forget.  Isn’t that what any of this is about?  Stop by Fort Adams State Park August 4-6, 2023.