Saratoga Jazz Festival announces 2024 line-up, its most diverse yet

Don’t be late.

Two of the funkiest and most exciting acts playing the 47th Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) next summer hit the stage early on June 29 and 30.

On Saturday, at the two-day, two-stage, 22-act festival, the all-star (really!) New Orleans Groove Masters play first on the main Amphitheater Stage. Then, Brooklyn keyboardist Cory Henry, a former member of Snarky Puppy, which played 2023’s festival, kicks off Sunday’s music.

“The 2023 festival was a smash success, and we are building off of that with high expectations for 2024,” said festival producer and Absolutely Live Entertainment President Danny Melnick, who took over leadership of the event from now-deceased founder George Wein. Inventor of the modern music festival, Wein played piano with an all-star big band in a previous festival and was enshrined in SPAC’s Walk of Fame in 2011.

“Our 2024 festival has a record number of female headliners, all among the most exciting musicians in the industry today,“ said SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol. She cited Samara Joy and Laufey as promising younger artists and Norah Jones and Rachael Price as more established stars. 

Two-time Grammy winner and only the second jazz artist named Best New Artist, Joy dazzled audiences at the festival’s Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage in June after doing the same at Albany’s Riverfront Jazz Festival and the Lake George Jazz Weekend last fall.

Nine-time Grammy winner and Billboard’s top jazz artist of the 2000-2009 decade, Jones played the festival in 2019, then played SPAC later last season; she has also played Proctors. Other festival artists have local fan bases through shows here; saxophonist Tia Fuller has played A Place for Jazz, for example.

The festival presents a mix of genders and ages, of established and emerging stars, and artists selected to please jazz purists, as well as pop, rock and blues acts to broaden the event’s appeal and audiences.

While 2023’s popular acts included blueswoman Bonnie Raitt and R&B giant Booker T. Jones, in 2024, Boston soul rockers Lake Street Dive and the versatile Jones who blends jazz and pop claim the prestigious closing slots on the Amphitheater Stage. Veteran blues guitarist Coco Montoya and emerging funk/hip-hop star Cimafunk also stretch the festival’s “jazz” borders.

Mainstream jazz artists include notable veterans; bassist Stanley Clarke and trumpeter Terence Blanchard both front new bands, while slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein brings his Millennial Territory Orchestra, likely the most traditional/antique-style band on the bill. Clarke and his new group reach back to his days with Chick Corea. Blanchard, who has scored most of Spike Lee’s films, mourned New Orleans, post-Katrina, in the epic orchestral “A Tale of God’s Will” and has produced operas performed at the Metropolitan. He steps away from his electronically bolstered E-Collective into a conventional sextet.

Clarke is 72, while pianist Joey Alexander, a star since his teens, will celebrate his 21st birthday at the 2024 festival, which is a tradition. Other younger jazz artists playing the 2024 festival are Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter Laufey (24), drummer Yussef Dayes (30), and Theo Croker (38).

Several artists do double duty: trumpeter Croker plays with Alexander’s trio and leads his own group, while congas master Pedrito Martinez guests with fellow Cuban funk and hip-hop star Cimafunk and leads his own percussion-powered band.

Pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa also hails from Cuba. Laufey and London-born, Nigerian-raised bassist Michael Olatuja may be the most complexly international artists at a festival famous for its imports.

Tributes to departed giants have long been key festival elements. This year, the Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All Stars return to honor drummer Max Roach, pianist Bud Powell and trombonist J.J. Johnson. These faculty cats/players paid tribute last year to other jazz eminences.

If this sounds like a lot, it is, apart from a scarcity of local acts and big-bands. Local hero Lee Shaw was so flustered at playing the gazebo stage years ago that she put her shoes on the wrong feet. She sat on a fat dictionary on her piano bench, like similarly short Errol Garner, she said. But I digress.

Among recent improvements Melnick and Sobol have brought to the festival is re-organizing set start times on the two stages. Now, fast-footed fans can catch more than a taste of each act because there’s less overlap. Comfortable shoes now loom as important as sunblock and rain gear. You can clock your 10,000 daily steps by bouncing between the stages to see everybody.

The second stage, formerly the gazebo and now named for donor/benefactor Charles R. Wood as the “Jazz Discovery” Stage, honors facility improvements there, where lesser known or emerging stars play, versus the main Amphitheater Stage that can welcome larger crowds. A tent over the audience area now shields “Discovery Stage” fans from rain and sun.

Non-music festival amenities include a new craft beer tasting village (a partnership with New York State Brewers Association), new and diverse food offerings, the familiar arts-and-crafts retail area and the bustling artist meet-and-greet and merchandise signing tent.

Fans can bring in food and beverages, also blankets, chairs, tents and lawn umbrellas, but restrictions apply. Also, anything brought in Saturday must be cleared after the show to facilitate cleanup and allow everybody a fair shot at favorite lawn spots in the eager Running of the Coolers footrace on Sunday. Parking is free.

The Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival may be the friendliest, most diverse gathering of the summer concert season. A great hang, it’s a fine place to discover new-to-you music. I’ll go to see some acts because I’ve seen and enjoyed them before; others because I’ve never seen them.

Lorraine Hale, vice president and general manager, Bread, Buns and Rolls at Bimbo Bakeries USA which owns Freihofer’s, proclaimed the company “proud to be title sponsor,” and said she’s “looking forward to another year of great live jazz music in the spectacular Saratoga Performing Arts Center.” 

Melnick, the festival’s Mr. Everywhere who introduces performers on both stages, said, “We have delivered another incredible lineup of new stars, celebrated legends and rhythms from around the world.”

2024 FREIHOFER’S SARATOGA JAZZ FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

The music begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 29, and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 30. 

* Marks acts new to the festival, although individual artists and bandleaders may be returning, the band configurations so marked are new.

Also lineups may change over time, versus this early announcement.

And, the listings below are in reverse chronological order. Performers listed first actually perform last.

SATURDAY, JUNE 29

Amphitheater:

• Lake Street Dive*
• Samara Joy
• Yussef Dayes*
• Joey Alexander Trio with special guest Theo Croker
• Cimafunk* with special guest Pedrito Martinez
• The New Orleans Groove Masters* featuring Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis & Shannon Powell

Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage:

• Tia Fuller
• Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra*
• Theo Croker
• Coco Montoya*
• Harold Lopez-Nussa*
• Sara Caswell Quartet*

SUNDAY, JUNE 30

Amphitheater:

• Norah Jones
• Laufey*
• Stanley Clarke N*4Ever
• Terence Blanchard Sextet
• Cory Henry

Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage:

• Pedrito Martinez Group
• Miguel Zenon Quartet
• Olatuja!
• Helen Sung presents Quartet+*
• Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars Centennial Celebration of Max Roach, Bud Powell & J.J. Johnson featuring Clay Jenkins, Steve Wilson, Steve Davis, Mike Moreno, Bill Cunliffe, Todd Coolman & Dennis Mackrel

Official festival information reads:

“ABOUT FREIHOFER’S SARATOGA JAZZ FESTIVAL:

Founded in 1978 by jazz impresario George Wein, Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival is the fifth longest-consecutive-running jazz festival in North America. Initially founded as “the Newport Jazz Festival at Saratoga” the weekend event was renamed Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in 1998. With an inside seating capacity of 5,200, and lawn seating of 20,000, the two-day, two-stage festival continues to be one of the largest jazz music events in North America, beloved by audiences for both the remarkable annual line-up of international jazz talent and the spectacular setting at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in the idyllic Saratoga Spa State Park.”

Visit www.spac.org for tickets and information.

Tickets start at $80, discounts and on-sale dates follow. 

SPAC members can buy tickets (tiered by membership level) starting at 10 a.m. on December 14, 2023.

Sales to the general public begin at 10 a.m. on Jan. 5.

Members also receive a discount of 15-20% (depending on level) on tickets. Two-day passes are also available for a savings of $20 off per pass (offer ends June 15 and can’t be combined with other discounts). 

Children 12 and under receive 50% off Amphitheater tickets and are admitted free on the lawn. Full-time students with a school-issued ID receive 25% off Amphitheater tickets or $28 on the lawn (student ID must be presented at will call).