Published July 17. 2026 05:49AM<\/p>\n
The fourth annual \u201cLehigh Valley Jazz and Arts Festival\u201d is a great and affordable way for families and individuals to find out about regional jazz.<\/p>\n
Along with four bands and a student performance and jam session, there will be arts and crafts for adults and children; vendors for books, lava lamps and art; community groups, slide shows, raffles and free giveaways; beverages, and New Orleans-style food.<\/p>\n
The festival is from 12:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. July 18, Charles A. Brown Ice House, Bethlehem. A suggested donation is asked.<\/p>\n
You can listen all day or just drop in.<\/p>\n
The schedule includes: Nancy and Spencer Reed Trio, 12:30 p.m.; The Stank Factory, 1:45 p.m.; Art Bailey Quintet, 3 p.m.; Lehigh Valley Student Jazz Performers and Jam, 4:15 p.m., and Fusion Jazz Trio, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Dan Wilkins will be playing saxophone with the Art Bailey Quintet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a broad spectrum of music in a variety of styles,\u201d Wilkins says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two groups have vocals. Nancy and Spencer Reed have been playing together for 40 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Stank Factory combines R&B jazz funk and New Orleans music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Art Bailey Quintet does bebop, post bop and avant-garde.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fusion Jazz Trio merges jazz and rock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Student Jazz Performers include two groups from the Moravian University Music Institute and musicians from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jam is for all ages and open to any students who want to be involved,\u201d says Wilkins.<\/p>\n
The Reeds emphasize melodic harmonies over insistent rhythms.<\/p>\n
The Stank Factory, named for an odoriferous water treatment plant near their rehearsal space, is a high-energy group that might be called a party band as well as a jazz combo.<\/p>\n
The Bailey Quintet plays original and other compositions with a sound that is modern but rooted in the jazz mainstream.<\/p>\n
The Fusion Jazz Trio, formed in 2002, has an electric, muscular sound influenced by funk.<\/p>\n
The festival began as a collaboration with Lehigh University\u2019s NeuroSalon, with Julie Miwa as its mentor.<\/p>\n
Miwa describes NeuroSalon as \u201ca project that encourages healing and wellness and mental and spiritual health. It is about using art to discover things about the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be a \u201cbrain talk\u201d that describes NeuroSalon\u2019s concepts about cognition and art.<\/p>\n
Neurosalon, a sponsor of the festival, will have an art exhibition of works that are inspired by neuroplasticity, which is the brain\u2019s ability to learn from new information and experiences.<\/p>\n
Says Miwa: \u201cNeuroSalon and the festival celebrate creativity with the spontaneous creation of music.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival will have many ways for children and adults to explore their creativity.<\/p>\n
There will be an art therapy session and a workshop for people to create their own paintings, henna art, face-painting, and crafts that include origami and coloring books.<\/p>\n
The festival is one of a number of jazz concerts presented by the IceHouse Jazz Collective that include musicians who will appear at the festival.<\/p>\n
Fourth annual \u201cLehigh Valley Jazz and Arts Festival,\u201d 12:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. July 18, Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Sand Island, Bethlehem. The suggested donation is $10. Information: https:\/\/icehouse-arts.org\/<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOSpencer and Nancy Reed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published July 17. 2026 05:49AM The fourth annual \u201cLehigh Valley Jazz and Arts Festival\u201d is a great and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-245676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245676","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=245676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}