DION PARSON
The outdoor Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center in West Orange will reopen after undergoing extensive renovations — and celebrate its 25th anniversary — with the 19th annual OSPAC West Orange Jazz Festival, Sept. 19 from 1 to 8 p.m.
For tickets, visit events.ticketleap.com/tickets/pvpospac/ospac-west-orange-jazz-fest.
The festival is produced by Pleasant Valley Productions, and festival artistic director Monifa Brown (best known as a DJ on WBGO) will host.
Here is the lineup:
1 p.m.: NJPAC’s TD Jazz for Teens (Mark Gross, director)
2 p.m.: The Jaleel Shaw Trio
3 p.m.: Montclair State University Jazz Ensemble (Oscar Perez, director)
4 p.m.: The Freddie Hendrix Experience & Fellowship
5 p.m.: Joe Locke, “Songs & Stories/Solo Vibes”
6 p.m.: The Antoinette Montague Experience
7 p.m.: Dion Parson & the 21st Century Band, “The Caribbean Sound — Now”
There will also be food vendors, a beer and wine garden, artisan booths and community showcases.
Dorthaan Kirk — associated with WBGO for decades, and known as Newark’s First Lady of Jazz — will receive the OSPAC Jazz Fest Spirit Award.
According to a press release, improvements to OSPAC include “an expanded, resurfaced stage with a new rubberized floor coating, improved lighting and outdoor speakers, three rows of new stadium seating, an ADA-accessible seating area, decorative fencing, a storage shed, reconstructed retaining walls, upgraded walkways and patios, and repaved driveways,” in addition to new landscaping.
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