Although it’s still months away, it’s time to mark the 2016 Riverview Jazz Festival on your calendar.
The festival will swing into its fourth year with a week’s worth of music and related attractions at sites in Hoboken and Union City as well as its home venue in Jersey City Heights.
Bryan Beninghove, president of RiverviewJazz.Org, said the festival will begin on June 4 with an opening party during the widely popular JC Fridays. The week will include performances at various venues in the area, and would conclude on June 11 with an all-day event at Riverview Fisk Park in Jersey City Heights that will include a beer garden, food trucks, local vendors, and jazz-related activities for children.
The festival will feature a wide array of talented local musicians and headlining name acts.
One of the special moments will feature the Donny McCaslin Quartet, a jazz foursome that performed on the late David Bowie’s last album “Black Star.”
Riverview Jazz.Org, founded in 2013, is trying to bring the highest quality of jazz to the Jersey City/Hudson County community, while putting a strong emphasis on education through music.
Beninghove said the festival didn’t start out as a festival in 2013.
“It started off with a neighbor of mine wanting to get a couple of bands to play,” he said. “I would be a Wizard of Oz, doing sound and playing with every band. I was exhausted. From there we slowly built.”
The festival recently got its non-profit status, and this has helped raise money and bring in some real talent. He said the city and county have been very cooperative.
“They took us very serious,” he said.
What amazed him was the amount of local talent that was not being heard locally. Jersey City and the area have a lot of professional and quality amateurs, some touring musicians that previously hadn’t had the opportunity to ply their local talents.
“This is a show case of the talent we have right here,” he said. “This also shows that this area can and is willing to support live music.”
Still growing
For the past three years the Riverview Jazz Festival sponsorship has helped the festival grow, he said. This year, The Hudson Reporter has signed on as the media sponsor, offering over 30,000 full-color media inserts with its May 29 editions of The Jersey City Reporter and The Hoboken Reporter, as well as thousands more being circulated at the events during the week. The insert will also serve as the program.
Although the culminating event will take place in Riverview Park on Saturday, June 11, performances during the week will take place at a number of locations, including some in downtown Jersey City, Union City, and Hoboken.
“These will happen in different neighborhoods and at venues that normally have live music,” he said.
Beninghove said live music has been growing in Jersey City.
“There are more than a few new venues,” he said. “Our festival will be a shine on live music in Jersey City. But this year, we’re also going to have acts in Hoboken and Union City. This is the first time outside of Jersey City.”
The Riverview Park site on June 11 will feature two stages and ten bands, including nationally recognized acts like Tipica 73, the backup band for Backup band for Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, and others.
One stage will be located on the historic cobblestone Holland Street under the Ogden Avenue bridge.
“The Riverview Neighborhood Association cleaned up the street and we’re going to use it as a showcase,” he said.
The festival is being sponsored by The Hudson Reporter as well as Hudson County and Jersey City offices of cultural affairs, Silverman the local developer, and Sawyer Smith.
“While we’re ahead of last year, we’re always looking for additional sponsors,” he said.
For more information go to www.Riverviewjazz.org
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.