Jazz Legacy Project to feature Art Blakey at Festival Hall

Festival Hall in Greensboro presents the second show of the 2023 Jazz Series, The Jazz Legacy Project at 7:30 p.m. May 11, featuring Art Blakey, Father of Modern Jazz. Tickets go on sale March 20, at festivalhallga.com.

A happy accident left Blakey and Horace Silver alone in a recording studio. It marked the beginning of the Hard Bop era and what followed was a band – The Jazz Messengers – that would essentially serve as a school for more than 20 of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

“Art Blakey strongly believed that his role was to take your burdens off your shoulders for the brief time he had your attention,” Jazz Legacy Project bandleader and drummer Justin Varnes said. “We will honor his vision by inviting you to leave your worries at the door and tap your feet to his infectious music.”

The Jazz Legacy Project presented Cannonball Adderley, Preaching the Gospel of Jazz earlier this spring as the first in the four-part jazz series at Festival Hall this year. Each program lasts about 90 minutes, with the goal of bringing the casual jazz listener inside the minds and music of the most influential and interesting American musicians of all time.