A beloved neighborhood tradition for almost two decades, the Selby Avenue Jazz Fest is remote this year.
Under normal circumstances large crowds would be turning out the second weekend of September for music, food, vendors and community.
This year there are four headliners each Saturday this month all virtual, including Sept. 26 with famed pianist Nachito Herrera who survived a case of COVID that left him in a coma for 14 days. It’s his first performance since his illness.
“We just hope people will tune in, and the main thing is we didn’t want people to think that we forgot them...we had an opportunity to work through this and we grabbed it,” Mychael Wright, executive director of the Selby Avenue Jazzfest and owner of Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe, said. “We’re still there, we’re still working on things but hopefully we can bring, I won’t say a better JazzFest, but a JazzFest that is far removed from 2020 and hopefully we can rebound from that.”
The free performances were recorded with precautions locally and start at 7 p.m. You can sign up for the performances at selbyavejazzfest.com.
Wright wasn’t optimistic to begin with and thought the 2020 festival would have to be outright cancelled. But throughout the pandemic he saw other musicians holding performances online. Business partners helped set up the remote system.
The JazzFest brings top-notch musical talent, but it was also a boon for neighborhood businesses.
“It’s just marvelous because it does attract a very different class and realm of everybody,” Carolyn Smaller, owner of Bouquets by Carolyn on Selby, said. “No one has shied away from it, they come here, they sit out, they have a great time. The traffic through my business is outstanding.”
Smaller also looked forward to seeing old friends she grew up with, even ones who would fly in from out of state just for the JazzFest.
Though her business has been strong through the pandemic through her nationwide floral delivery network, Smaller can’t wait for what she hopes will be the biggest and best one next year.
“We need it. We really needed it this year with everything going on,” Smaller said. “All the windows here were boarded up for George Floyd, what happened there. All the businesses were boarded up. I’m just hoping. Everyone needs something good to happen for a while."