Jazz and Roots Festival returns to downtown Springfield on July 11-12

A two-day jazz and roots music festival is coming back to Springfield – and, as ever, it’s free.

The Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival will return on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12, at Stearns Square in Springfield.

This year’s lineup includes Endea Owens & The Cookout, El Laberinto del Coco, Richard Parris Scott, and a number of other national and local acts, spanning jazz, bomba, salsa, hip-hop, funk, soul, bebop, and other genres. Programming at the festival also will include a vendor market, family-friendly activities, and more. As of this writing, an exact schedule is still in the works.

The festival also will feature a traditional New Orleans-style Second Line Parade through the streets of downtown Springfield, led by students from the Community Music School of Springfield, on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

“Oh, man – that’s so fun,” said Vanessa Ford, president of the Blues to Green board of directors. “It’s like New Orleans landed right in Springfield on Main Street. Super exciting and the performers are top-notch.”

Festival Producer Kristin Neville, the founder of the local arts education and social justice nonprofit Blues to Green, was married to the late Charles Neville, a legendary saxophonist and member of The Neville Brothers. Before his death in 2018, Charles Neville had a long career that included performing with acclaimed artists such as B. B. King, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Fats Domino, and Tina Turner, among others. He moved to Huntington in the 90s, volunteered with the Community Music School of Springfield, and was part of the inaugural Northampton Jazz Festival in 2011. A large banner at the festival features his image, and donors receive a commemorative button with his likeness within a tie-dye pattern in honor of his trademark outfit.

Kristin Neville founded her nonprofit (and the festival) as a way to honor her late husband’s legacy. Being able to do so, she said, is “very special and heartwarming.”

“I do feel he’s very much present and alive in spirit through this work and through sharing this music and sharing the joy of the music that brings people together in community,” she said. “That’s what he was really about, and sharing that love and connection through the language of music – I feel honored that I have the ability to do that and to keep his memory alive.”

What stuck with her as she joined her husband on tour was the way that his music impacted audiences around the world – how “no matter where they were, the people hearing the music [felt] it and [were] totally connected with the band in that moment – there was no separation. They were united through that experience and were like family,” she said.

“You feel that when you’re there experiencing something like this festival and you’re exposed to people from different communities, different backgrounds, [crossing] racial, cultural, economic lines, but you’re there together in the spirit of the music and connected as one,” she said.

Blues to Green works to promote music of the African diaspora in the community.

“I love the good vibes. [Jazz] makes you wanna dance, and it’s rooted in the tradition of people who have found a way to find joy in the midst of struggle, and we can do that today,” Ford said. “Jazz is not just for one group of people or one segment of the population; it’s for everyone to find themselves in that sound, in the hope that however you’re feeling, you can lift yourself up.”

“The power of music has the ability to lift us all,” she added. “There’s a real vibe – if you want to catch it, it’s real. … [Jazz] shows our resiliency. The music really does have a vibe that lasts generations, and we’re hoping that it continues to do that now more than ever.”

This year’s festival is especially noteworthy (pun intended) because it will include the inauguration of a new venue, the Hope Center for the Arts, a renovation of the former City Stage building, thereby expanding the festival’s capacity for indoor programming. The Hope Center will have 450 seats and high-level audio and lighting systems, making it potentially “one of the best-sounding rooms on the East Coast,” festival co-producer and co-founder Evan Plotkin said.

Plotkin appreciates how much of a boon the Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival is for the city. A big cross-cultural event like that – what he called “the best block party anywhere” – is “really transformational to the downtown, and it really shows people what the downtown can look like when there are people enjoying themselves, listening to music, enjoying the food vendors, and everything else. That’s really always magical for me, always, and that’s why I’ve been doing this for 12 years.”

“This is not all just because I love music and I love the arts, but I do, but I also recognize it as a lever to bring about economic development,” he added. “When prospective restaurateurs or real estate investors experience the Jazz Festival, they see Springfield, and they see what it can be.”

He, like Ford and Neville, echoed the sentiment that a live jazz and roots festival helps to bring together people of every demographic.

“Everybody loves this festival,” Plotkin said. “Even if they don’t like jazz, they love it – people have said that to me. They don’t like jazz, but they love the live music that they hear. They might not necessarily have it on Spotify on their phone, but they enjoy the experience of the live music.”

“It’s lovely music, it’s beautiful to listen to, it’s fun, it’s energetic, it gets people dancing and smiling and enjoying,” he added. “I love to see the joy in people’s faces when they’re at the festival – that’s the success. That’s how we measure it.”

Admission is free, but guests are strongly encouraged to RSVP and donate at springfieldjazzfest.com. If you’re interested in volunteering for the festival, visit bluestogreen.org/join-our-team.