For the next 10 Friday evenings, jazz fans from the District and beyond will continue to enjoy the Jazz in the Garden Concert Series, as guests of the National Gallery of Art. The beloved summer ritual of gathering alongside works of art, sitting with pals while listening and dancing to an assortment of musical styles performed by a wide range of jazz artists is, for the 11th season, in full swing and free of charge.
“The attendance for the National Gallery of Art’s Jazz in the Garden series has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since it started in 2001 and last year averaged an attendance of more than 16,000 each Friday,” said Deborah Ziska, spokeswoman for the National Gallery of Art. “In total, the gallery has welcomed nearly 850,000 visitors for jazz since the beginning of the series.”
| Onstage |
| Jazz in the Garden |
| Where: National Gallery of Art, National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW |
| When: Every Friday night through Sept. 9; 5 to 8:30 p.m. |
| Info: Free, nga.gov/jazz; 202-289-3360 |
Concerts take place in the heart of the garden’s iconic works of art by such great contemporary artists as Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg. Musicians perform salsa, blusion, Afrofunk, straight-ahead jazz, piano jazz; even a September finale performance on a Hammond B-3 organ.
The Latin jazz quartet, Con Candela (“With Fire”) appears this Friday night bringing passion and virtuosity to their Afro-Cuban style of music. Group members include leaders Alejandro Lucini on drums and Eli Estaples on keyboards, along with conga player and singer Alfredo Mojica and bass guitarist Leonardo Lucini.
“We love [playing] the Sculpture Garden because there are thousands of people that come by during the performance,” said Alejandro Lucini. “Here, we have a free range of performance.”
Visitors will be a part of performances by Chuck Redd on jazz vibraphone, Alex Brown playing jazz piano and the double-drumming sound of Alan Wonneberger and Company, to name a few.
Musicians perform in front of the Pavilion Cafe, where guests can pick up food and beverages. There are also food carts located around the grounds or folks can bring their own picnic baskets, with some restrictions.
