Jazz Happy Hour with Darden & Friends

Tedd Baker has worked with and recorded with a wide variety of jazz greats and contemporary artists.

There’s an ethereal journey on which pianist, Janelle Gill, brings listeners that transcends the boundaries of jazz. Through her work of self-exploration as it exists in music, she has tapped into a vein of fluidity that heals with sound.

Special two-night event moving to the Pavilion where multi-WAMMIE winners The Capitol Bones, a trombone band like no other, will open for Big Al & The Jokers – who are making their exclusive U.S. Premiere as part of the Reston Concerts on the Town. Promises to be an unforgettable two nights.

Special two-night event moving to the Pavilion where multi-WAMMIE winners The Capitol Bones, a trombone band like no other, will open for Big Al & The Jokers – who are making their exclusive U.S. Premiere as part of the Reston Concerts on the Town. Promises to be an unforgettable two nights.

Hailing from the Venezuelan Andes, Fran Vielma is a critically acclaimed and award-winning multi-percussionist, composer, and educator. His continuous research on Pan-American rhythms and beyond is integrated with his attraction to concert music and the freedom of jazz.

Steve Fidyk is a nationally acclaimed jazz drummer, composer, author, and educator known for his musical versatility and depth. He is currently a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and serves on the jazz studies faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Multi-talented arranger and vocalist Gracie Jay is part of a rare, niche category of talented female vocalists. She is a powerful force on stage, simultaneously writing and arranging for the same large ensembles for which she masterfully sings.

Beloved curator and namesake of this series, national recording artist, and Director of Jazz Studies at GMU, Darden Purcell's exceptional voice and talent return to the amphitheater stage. One of the most anticipated of our jazz series concerts every year.

First time at our series, Geoffrey Dean is a jazz pianist, composer, author, and educator, yes, but he is more than that -- he is a jazz tour de force. His music spans the entire genre of jazz – from blues and hard bop influences to classical music, R&B, and modern jazz.

A trumpet virtuoso, Graham Breedlove has performed on four continents in more than twenty countries, with headliners representing more than one hundred Grammy nominations. The Saturday Night Live Band, Ray Charles, Wynton Marsalis, Ramsey Lewis, Mariah Carey, and Doc Severinsen are just some with whom he has performed. Graham will bring it, guarantied.

BLOOM is sure to inspire. Through the group's love of rich harmony and collaborative music-making, they reimagine pop, jazz, neo-soul, and alternative music through lush vocal textures and inventive arrangements.

With a transcendent voice that puts its own stamp on classics and exhilarates audiences, Emily Davies currently features with the Carter Stevens Big Band and has appeared with the American Festival Pops Orchestra, the Ben Patterson Jazz Orchestra, the Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble, and the Mason Jazz Ensemble. Add in her sublime mastery of the flute and you can understand why we are excited to welcome her to the Darden and Friends series.

We are proud to have award-winning saxophonist and composer Stephen Philip Harvey close this year's series. How about these for accolades, reviewing his Multiversal album: “A composer and bandleader with a knack for translating com-book action into instrumental jazz fireworks." (DownBeat Magazine); “A bold, super-powered live album that cements his place as one of contemporary jazz’s adventurous large-ensemble voices" (UK Vibe); “His compositions and first-class arrangements connect the jazz tradition with the spirit of contemporary African American music." (Jazz’n’More).