Cambridge Jazz Festival brings music, dancing and more to Danehy Park

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On Saturday and Sunday, July 26-27, from noon to 6 p.m., the 10th annual Cambridge Jazz Festival celebrates the power of music. The free event at Danehy Park on Sherman Street features local and national performers whose art and energy are revitalizing.

Founded 12 years ago by Ron Savage and Larry Ward, the festival took a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Nowadays, in a period of national crisis, it functions as a celebration of the ways that music helps to create community.

The line-up on Saturday features the Zahili Zamora Quartet, Ron Reid’s Precious Metals Project, Namisa Mdlalose and Lumanyano Bizana and Equie Castrillo y Su Orchestra. Sunday’s performers are Sound of Soul (featuring Ron Savage, Bill Pierce, Bobby Broom, Consuelo Candeleria-Barry and Ron Mahdi), Elan Trotman and Terri Lyne Carrington (who will also direct musicians from the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice).

“We have local control of the festival by design,” Savage told the Banner, “And have a tremendous cohort of world-class musicians here in Boston. We’re also grateful to have a community that supports the festival. The audience determines the value of what we do. With all the aches and pains of creating a jazz festival, when I see a family with three kids there enjoying the level of artistry, it makes it all worthwhile.”

The crowd enjoys a performance during a previous year’s festival. PHOTO: COURTESY CAMBRIDGE JAZZ FOUNDATION

One highlight of the festival is what has become an annual salsa dance party. This is the fifth year that the Equie Castrillo y Su Orchestra will take to the main stage on Saturday night. To encourage folks to try salsa dancing, who may have doubts about their skills, Cynthia Pimentel Koskela, the director of Berklee’s Center for Music Therapy, will help out.

“I’ll tell you a little secret,” said Savage. “The last two years, Cynthia gets up there and teaches people a few basic salsa steps. In addition, independently of the salsa party, Cynthia is helping to coordinate music therapy activities on Saturday which will take place in a tent we’ve set up for the festival.”

Reflecting the eclecticism and boundary-expanding nature of the Boston community, this year’s festival highlights traditions and reinterpretations of global music, and not just jazz. Afro-Cuban culture is evident in the work of the Zahili Zamora Quartet. Audiences can enjoy the sounds of South Africa brought by Namisa Mdlalose and Lumanyano Bizana. Puerto Rican percussion will fill the air when Equie Castrillo y Su Orchestran take the stage.

Also, the history of the region is will be highlighted. 

“We will have a kind of pop-up museum featuring jazz through the ages, rooted in Cambridge,” Ward said. “And we’ll be awarding a scholarship named after Johnny Hodges, the great and famous saxophonist who was born in Cambridge. Jazz has a long history in this city.”

The 50-acre Danehy Park can accommodate the 20,000 festival attendees, anticipated to be 10,000 per day; parking is free in the lot of the adjacent Fresh Pond shopping center. People are welcome to bring their own food, but lots of vendors will be at the festival selling food, from barbeque to ice cream.

Grammy-winning and Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington is the festival closer. Celebrating her 60th birthday with “a musical retrospective,” Carrington’s appearance gives audience members a great opportunity to see and hear this world-famous, local musician.

“So, looking forward to celebrating my 60th birthday at the Cambridge Jazz Festival this year,” Carrington told the Banner.  “Time may pass, but Boston/Cambridge/Medford have all been constant community over the years. So, I am very much looking forward to sharing this milestone with all of our community with a retrospective look at my solo career. Jazz has a way of bringing us together!”