For nearly three decades the Department of Fine Arts at Alcorn State University, with funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts, has sponsored what has become Mississippi’s longest-running and most prestigious jazz festival. The day-long festival features performances by some of most outstanding professional jazz musicians and university, college and secondary school jazz ensembles from throughout the United States. Highlights of the festivals are the afternoon workshops and evening concerts by some of the world’s greatest jazz artists. (See the list of past featured artists below.)

Now in its 28th year, the Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival is a masterpiece rich in tradition and talent. Jazz masters like Clark Terry, Max Roach, Slide Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, Louie Bellson, Donald Byrd, Ramsey Lewis, and Stanley Turrentine have graced the stage of this free event throughout its history, establishing the ASU Jazz Festival as a true gem and premier jazz event in the region.

Throughout its history thousands have attended the festival to enjoy some of the best in jazz available anywhere. Many more also saw some of these performances broadcast on Channel 23 Vicksburg and heard them on numerous broadcasts throughout the state on Mississippi Public Radio’s “Mississippi Concert Hall” series. Every year there are exciting new developments in the growth of the festival. This year we are expecting student ensembles from as far away as Northeast Alabama and New York City (The Roberta Flack School of Music at Hyde Leadership Charter School in New York is planning to come and perform at the festival. Their trip to the festival was made possible through fundraising by Roberta Flack and through contributions by generous donors, including Yoko Ono.) Walt Grayson is also making plans to film a segment about the festival for the WLBT television program “Look Around Mississippi.”

The festival continues in its tradition of reaching an ever growing audience in the expansive and modern Vicksburg Convention Center, just above the scenic Mississippi River in the heart of picturesque downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi (map).

At 36, trumpeter Roy Hargrove has firmly established himself as among the premier players in jazz and beyond. Ever-stretching into more challenging and colorful ways to flex his musical chops, Hargrove has left indelible imprints in a vast array of artful settings. During his tenure on the Verve label alone, he has recorded an album with a hand-picked collection of the world’s greatest tenor saxophonists (With the Tenors of Our Time), an album of standards with strings (Moment to Moment) and, in 2003, introduced his own hip hop/jazz collective The RH Factor with the groundbreaking CD Hard Groove (swiftly followed by the limited edition EP, Strength). Hargrove has also won Grammy® Awards for two vastly different projects. In 1997, Roy’s Cuban-based band Crisol (including piano legend Jesus “Chucho” Valdes and wonder drummer Horatio “El Negro” Hernandez) won the Best Latin Jazz Performance Grammy for the album Habana. And in 2002, Hargrove, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker won Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group, for their three-way collaboration Directions in Music. To hear and see Roy with the Dizzy Gillespie All Stars, click here.

For a Schedule of events: click here.

The jazz festival is always free and open to the public and is funded in part by the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about the Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival, please contact:

• Dr. David Miller, Director
  601-877-6602 or davemilleralcorn@yahoo.com
  click here to get an application form in Microsoft Word.

Or you may fax us at: 601-877-6262.

You can read a review of the 24th Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival at:
www.jazzreview.com/articledetails.cfm?ID=2992