On Sunday, September 24, Litchfield Jazz Presents the first Jazz Brunch at the Palace Theater Poli Club. The brunch runs from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and features the Albert Rivera Latin Jazz Sextet and is catered by Ciesco Catering. It is going to be a fun-filled event with plenty of great food and music. If it’s as popular as we know it will be, this will be the first of many. Tickets are $69 and are available from the Palace Theater Box Office at www.PalaceTheaterCT.org or (203)346-2000. The brunch is produced in collaboration with New England Arts & Entertainment.

www.AlbertRiveraJazz.com

Rico Jones is steadily becoming one of the top young saxophonists of his generation. A Colorado native, Rico has been deeply compelled by artistic expression since early childhood. Before music, Rico taught himself how to draw. His creativity similarly lent itself to music as he started his path as a musician by learning to play by ear. Rico grew up in Denver performing under the guidance of local artists such as Paul Romaine, Greg Gisbert, Eric Gunnison, Art Lande, Brad Goode and Vlad Girshevich. As the years passed Rico became enthralled by black American musical art forms. Blues, and Jazz became a primary mode of expression for Jones and his ensembles. As he grew, his heritage as a Latino with indigenous roots became a focus for his artistic expressions. In 2019 Rico Jones was awarded 1st prize in the Vandoren Emerging Artist competition. He later premiered a new big band composition written for him by Todd Bashore at the Music For All festival with Jazz Band of America. Rico was also chosen in 2019 to take part in the prestigious Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, and the 2019 JAS Aspen workshop. In October 2019 Rico performed his first international concert in Paris at Sunset/Sunside Jazz Club. In 2020 Rico competed in the first ever Rudin Jazz Championship at Lincoln Center under the direction of Jon Faddis. Jones was also placed as a finalist in the North American Saxophone competition.

www.RicoJonesMusician.com

Hailing from Michigan, home to luminary vocal legends like Aretha Franklin, Betty Carter, and her mentor, Abbey Lincoln, Jenna’s mixed heritage household and neighborhood surrounded her with a vast array of diverse culture and music. And the rest is HERstory… At the tender age of five, Jenna Mammina began singing in church and in clubs with her brothers Nino and Mitch and sister Lisa. Visits to her mother’s Native American New Mexico and experiencing the healing power of music planted the seed which would eventually define the power of the gift she now possesses. “I have fallen under Jenna’s spell,” writes Oakland Tribune music critic Jim Herrington. “I hope to never recover from it.” With thousands of miles and performances under her tri-coastal musical gypsy skirt, Jenna has claimed the San Francisco Bay Area as her home and sanctuary. She has performed with a vast array of legendary talent such as Bobby McFerrin, Rickie Lee Jones, Al Jarreau, Phish, David Sanborn, Liz Story, Tuck Andress, and Rosemary Clooney to name a few.

https://bluecoastrecords.com › artist › jenna-mammina

Israeli-born vocalist, pianist, composer, and music therapist Noa Fort is blurring the lines between written and composed, group and individual, inner and outer soundscape, giving and receiving; all on the path to healing, with music. After a short stint as a biologist, researching bird migration in the Israeli desert, Fort decided to go back to her first love, music and pursued a degree in Music Performance (first for voice, then for piano) at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She became involved in the music scene in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, leading a Jazz quintet as well as working as a side woman for several bands and projects. She also started volunteering with teenagers with special needs, and slowly realized what she’d always known - that music can be used for more than self-expression; it can be used to create a connection where words fail, a path to healing, and a terrain to explore the self in relation to others. In 2013, Fort moved to NYC, to pursue both her performance career and to become a music therapist. She enrolled for a Master’s degree in Music Therapy at NYU, and interned at the Kings County Mental Health Units, using songwriting, improvisation, and singing as her main tools. Now a New York State-licensed creative arts therapist and board-certified music therapist, Fort is focused on finding ways in which music can be used to address the different needs of her diverse clientele. She is constantly expanding her listening practice.

www.NoaFort.com

Jazz singer-songwriter Allegra Levy was recently named one of the top ten rising stars among jazz vocalists in the 2021 Downbeat Critics’ Poll. Most jazz vocalists sing standards. Allegra Levy writes her own. From the plaintive title track of her boldly autobiographical debut album, LONELY CITY, to her critically acclaimed 2017 follow-up release, CITIES BETWEEN US, the 30-year-old jazz singer-songwriter has penned a lyrical collection of harmonically adventurous-yet-familiar originals steeped in the Great American Songbook. A native of Connecticut now based in New York, Levy has been dubbed a "double-barreled talent" and “unquestionably one to watch” by JazzTimes magazine. Her third album on the SteepleChase label, 2018’s LOOKING AT THE MOON, was named an Editor’s Pick in both Downbeat Magazine and JazzTimes. In 2020, she released a fourth album on SteepleChase, LOSE MY NUMBER: ALLEGRA LEVY SINGS JOHN MCNEIL, to rave reviews. It features her own lyrics set to the tunes of renowned jazz trumpeter John McNeil. The New Yorker Magazine called it “a showcase for Levy’s… agile vocalizing and her gift for sculpting words, and for McNeil’s far too neglected abilities as a melodic architect.” She recently won the John Lennon Songwriting Competition’s Stuck at Home Edition for her children’s song “Wash My Hands,” which encouraged everyone to stay safe during the pandemic.

www.AllegraLevy.com