History

The Williamsburg Jazz Festival was started in 2001 by Williamsburg resident and jazz musician Jesse Selengut. Jesse was running a jam session at Laila Lounge at the time and was beginning to realize how many talented people lived nearby. Jesse teamed up with Jorge Cruz, a serious jazz afficionado, and put together a plan to host a multi-stage event at a variety of local venues.

The first year started out small with mostly local talent but did feature piano great Dave Kikoski. The second annual festival really gathered steam and public acclaim thanks to headliners such as Nellie McKay and Chris Potter. Attendence was over-flowing, the music was great and more and more people were hearing about the event. In 2005, the festival completely took off with legends such as Dave Douglas and Steve Coleman.

Starting on January 4th, 2006 Rick Parker was officially welcomed as co-director and producer of the WJF. Rick, besides being a Williamsburg denizen and a phenomenal trombone player, also has quite a history of putting terrific bands together and hosting and promoting sessions in the neighborhood. He is currently hosting a jam session at Rose Live Music (Grand St near Havemeyer) every Sunday night.

Looking forward, the Williamsburg Jazz Festival is now producing smaller events every three months leading up to a big weeklong festival in September. These smaller events will take place in the different sections of Williamsburg. In January, the WJF featured Dafnis Prieto on the South Side at the Williamsburg Music Center. In March, Ferenc Nemeth performed in Greenpoint at Club Europa in association with New York Dance and Arts Innovations. In the Summer, the WJF will host an event in East Williamsburg and then be back on the Northside in September. Hopefully, this will become a yearly cycle of great jazz programming.