The 35th Annual Boscov\u2019s Berks Jazz Fest in Reading keeps growing.<\/p>\n
This year, the 10-day festival at four major venues has 40 major and 80 local concerts, more than 100 musicians, with 20,000 ticket-holders expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very unique. There are no other jazz festivals like it,\u201d says Berks Arts Executive Director Tish Davis.<\/p>\n
Berks Arts, Reading, founded as Berks Arts Council in 1969, is presenting the Jazz Fest, March 19-29.<\/p>\n
Performers for the 2026 Fest include the Yellowjackets, Gerald Veasley, Pieces of a Dream, Chris Botti, Emmet Cohen Quintet, Boney James, Spyro Gyra, Eric Benet, Stanley Jordan, Will Downing, Regina Belle, Maysa, Najee, Vincent Ingala, Ravi Coltrane, Marcus Miller and Rick Braun.<\/p>\n
Many of the artists are Berks Jazz Fest regulars.<\/p>\n
The Fest has four major venues: Scottish Rite Cathedral, Miller Center for the Arts, and the Grand Ballroom and Small Ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.<\/p>\n
Other concerts are at the Peanut Bar Restaurant, Reading, and the Highlands at Wyomissing Retirement Community. There are free concerts at rooms and lounges in the DoubleTree.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmooth jazz is still the most popular form here, but we try to make things diverse, including traditional, big band, and straight-ahead jazz. And we give new artists opportunities in smaller venues,\u201d Davis says in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
Straight-ahead jazz is an acoustic-based form that tends to be mainstream and lean away from fusion and rock influences.<\/p>\n
The Fest presents musicians and singers influenced by blues, R&B and neo-soul. In had been called the Berks Blues and Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n
The education component of the Jazz Fest is getJazzed. The Reading Musical Foundation Jazz Jam was March 23. There are Jazz Horizon Jams when students can learn and play with music clinicians.<\/p>\n
Berks County students are from 16 high school and colleges. The Berks High School All-Star Jazz Band opened for the Last Big Band, March 24, and will open for the Berks Sinfonietta, March 28.<\/p>\n
The Jazz Fest was originally a three-day festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we wanted a special celebration for the anniversary by doing something new,\u201d says Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis April is Jazz Appreciation Month all over the country. The Jazz Fest normally goes into April, but this year it ends in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we wanted to continue with extra events until the end of the month. They include schools and churches that are not always part of the Fest,\u201d Davis says.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBJF35 Jam Celebration\u201d has 33 additional jazz events at 22 venues in Berks County, including \u201cAn Evening of Jazz Percussion with Gary Burton,\u201d April 7, Kutztown University, and Rick Braun playing the songs of Chuck Mangione, April 30, \u201cInternational Jazz Day,\u201d Miller Center for the Arts, Reading.<\/p>\n
There are three jazz jams led by Gerald Veasley, and a Chuck Loeb Memorial All-Star Jam, dedicated to the late guitarist.<\/p>\n
Berks Arts sponsors the annual \u201cFrank Scott Memorial Art Show: The Art of Jazz,\u201d named after the late local saxophone player, March 9 – April 2, Schmidt Gallery, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents and adults from all over the country send in artwork, which can include paintings, photographs, sculpture or other media, chosen by a juror,\u201d says Davis.<\/p>\n
The art will be on display April 5 – April 14 at the DoubleTree.<\/p>\n
35th annual Boscov\u2019s Berks Jazz Fest information: https:\/\/www.berksjazzfest.com\/<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOTish Davis, Executive Director, Berks Arts, presenting 35th annual Boscov\u2019s Berks Jazz Fest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 35th Annual Boscov\u2019s Berks Jazz Fest in Reading keeps growing. This year, the 10-day festival at four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-150834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}