Schedule of Events

TWO STAGES OF ENTERTAINMENT!

• 3:00pm Second Stage: Feedel Band
• 3:30pm Mainstage: Dupont Brass
• 4:15pm Second Stage: Eric Byrd Trio
• 5:00pm Mainstage: Paul Carr and the Jazz Collective
• 6:00pm Second Stage: Todd Marcus Quintet
• 7:00pm Mainstage: Marcus Johnson presents Crank + Flo
• 8:30pm Mainstage: Chucho Valdés Quartet

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Feedel Band

Feedel Band is an Ethiopian Jazz Band which is based out of DC but has played all over the world. Feedel Band’s sound can best be described as an East African jazz, a merging of 1960s R&B and funk grooves with traditional Ethiopian minor key scales. The band is led by Araya Woldemichael on keys, Moges Habte on tenor sax, Panda Manurung on drums, and Derrick Cooper on bass.

Dupont Brass

DuPont Brass brass-driven rhythm group from the heart of DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Born out of the musical halls of Howard University, this once humble quintet of music scholars has blossomed into a dynamic 10-piece force, featuring brass, a rhythm section, and vocal prowess. Their journey began with humble origins, as they busked in Metro stations to fund their education, but has since catapulted them onto prestigious stages across the nation.

Eric Byrd Trio

For over twenty years, The Eric Byrd Trio have traveled the world as enthusiastic ambassadors of jazz. Rooted in swing and bebop, The Trio also embraces gospel and the blues as core elements of their expansive performance style. The trio take a rigorous, modern approach to standards as well as original compositions, playing with great acuity within the broad and rich jazz tradition.

Paul Carr and the Jazz Collective

Paul Carr is an award winning saxophonist, Educator and Founder of the Jazz Academy of Music, and Director of the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. Paul is passionately committed to the education of children and young adults, particularly as it relates to the preservation of jazz. As founder of the Jazz Academy of Music, he hosts summer camps and jazz ensembles for kids throughout the year.  The Houston native has made himself indispensable to the DC jazz education and concert scene.  Paul has toured Russia, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Central and South America and has shared the stage with many of the greatest names in jazz. Paul has appeared frequently as guests of Presidents at the White House. 

Todd Marcus Quintet

Todd Marcus is one of the few artists worldwide to focus on the bass clarinet as a main instrument in modern jazz with his small and large ensembles. His straight-ahead playing and compositions swing with fiery intensity balanced with delicate introspection. His music offers a strong melodic sensibility, draws from elements of his community work, and often incorporate the Middle Eastern influences of his Egyptian-American heritage.

Marcus Johson Presents Crank + Flo.

Crank + Flo is a Jazz and Gogo mesh, for those who love a different sophisticated Gogo experience. Internationally famous, homegrown star Marcus Johnson will lead the energetic performance.  Marcus plays a blend of contemporary jazz stylings and hip-hop and rhythms.  He describes his music as “instrumental R&B with a D.C. bounce.”  Marcus began playing the piano at age nine and, from that point, he wanted to “create classics, not just hit songs.”  Marcus is a founding member of the Silver Spring Jazz Festival and FLO wine.  

CHUCHO VALDÉS QUARTET

Latin Jazz legend, Chucho Valdés'  career has spanned more than sixty years. Chucho has pushed boundaries in pursuit of new expressions in Afro-Cuban music. His influence in the genre is immeasurable, his work establishing the standard by which younger generations set out to create their own interpretation of Afro-Cuban jazz.

Chucho’s musical education included formal studies and countless nights on the best stages in Cuba as the pianist with his father Bebo Valdés and his orchestra Sabor de Cuba, and with the seminal Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. Chucho is perhaps best known as the founder, pianist, and main composer and arranger of Irakere, a landmark ensemble in Cuban music. Chucho led Irakere for more than 30 years, but since 2005 he has focused more on his personal career, highlighting his work as a pianist and leading small ensembles.

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Silver Spring Jazz Festival 20 Years

The Silver Spring Jazz festival began in 2004 with local jazz great Keter Betts and Silver Spring’s own smooth jazz star Marcus Johnson as headliners. The festival has featured a variety of well known, popular performers, with jazz styles ranging from New Orleans’ style big band, to contemporary jazz, to smooth jazz, to straight ahead jazz, to Latin jazz, and more. The full history of the headliners for the Silver Spring Jazz Festival is as follows:

2024 Chucho Valdés Quartet

2023 Dee Dee Bridgewater

2022 Delfeayo Marsalis

2021 Covid (no event)

2020 Covid (no event)

2019 Arturo Sandoval

2018 Dianne Reeves

2017 Lao Tizer

2016 David Sanborn

2015 Al Chez and the Brothers of Funk Big Band 

2014 Preservation Hall Jazz Band

2013 Branford Marsalis

2012 Sergio Mendez

2011 Marcus Johnson Project

2010 Aaron Neville

2009 Allen Toussaint

2008 Mingus Big Band

2007 Arturo Sandoval

2006 Spyro Gyra

2005 Wynton Marsalis

2004 Keter Betts and The Marcus Johnson Project 

This year’s headliner is Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés. He a winner of seven Grammy and six Latin Grammy Awards, and is the the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz.