Daphne Bolden, Founder and Executive Director of Jazz in the Berkshires, is shining a light on the rich legacy of Black jazz musicians in our region and their significant contributions to the greater world of jazz. In her 3-day Williamstown Jazz Festival this fall, she will connect the past to the present through performances and education, while providing established and emerging BIPOC artists with a stage for the innovation and creativity that are the hallmarks of jazz.
With this flagship festival, Jazz in the Berkshires seeks to restore visibility for BIPOC musicians within the Berkshire music scene and deepen understanding of jazz’s cultural roots.
BIPOC musicians have been underrepresented in the Berkshires since the early 1960s, Bolden notes, when the highly esteemed, but not necessarily widely known, Lenox School of Jazz closed. For four summers, it provided ground-breaking opportunities for jazz artists to work together, and the collaborations extended beyond the music. Primarily attended by Jewish and Black musicians, “They had a lot of conversations about race and class and music,” Bolden says. “I want to see those conversations again. I want to see those kinds of interactions and recognition of the history of the music."
Bolden’s long-term, “blue sky” vision for Jazz in the Berkshires, founded in 2022, is to make the Berkshires a vibrant, inclusive national hub for jazz performance and education, with events year-round.
Building on this spirit of openness and to expand the historical lens, the festival will include a film screening, a discussion, “The History of Jazz in the Berkshires,” and performances by internationally recognized artists. By painting a fuller picture of the art form of jazz, Bolden hopes to draw its throughline to today’s music. Bolden, who majored in music before pivoting to earn her PhD in Molecular Biology, notes that the “far-reaching tentacles of jazz,” include blues, swing, big band, bebop and fusion with other genres.
With this broader context in place, the festival actively courts audiences—and artists—from a wide array of backgrounds and age ranges to illustrate the diversity and cross-cultural reach of jazz. This year’s festival will include Arturo Sandoval, Grammy Award-Winning trumpet player and protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, as well as newer artists making their mark.
Brandee Younger, an African American, Grammy-nominated harpist, composer and bandleader will perform, as will Connie Han, a contemporary Chinese American composer and pianist. It is key, Bolden notes, to create more space for female artists to share their talent, who face their own barriers to inclusion in a male-dominated field.
The 3-day Williamstown Jazz Festival will take place September 11 – 13 with events at Williams College, The Clark Art Institute, and Images Cinema.
The Equity Fund
Berkshire Taconic’s Equity Fund support for Jazz in the Berkshires spans two years. The Equity Fund supports projects that are led by and/or holistically serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
