Jazz at the Lake: Lake George Jazz Weekend

Hosted by the Lake George Arts Project, this contemporary jazz festival includes performances by some of the most talented jazz musicians on the planet.

Stay tuned for the 2020 schedule as it becomes available! For an idea of what to expect, check out last year's details:

2019 Schedule:

Saturday, September 14

• 1:00 PM: Camila Meza & The Nectar Orchestra

Camila Meza, equally prized as a vocalist, guitarist, and composer, has brought a sound full of warmth, intricacy and rhythmic clarity to the New York jazz scene ever since her arrival from Santiago, Chile in 2009. Inspired by jazz, South American music and American popular song of many eras and genres, she has uplifted audiences worldwide with her rare combination of talents: assured and beautiful singing; highly advanced guitar; and vividly colorful, melodic songwriting that reveals complex layers with every listen. Her latest album, Ámbar, released on Sony Masterworks, features her group The Nectar Orchestra, an 8-piece group consisting of guitar/voice, piano, bass, drums with string quartet

• 2:45 PM: Wayne Escoffery Quartet

Downbeat Critics Poll Winner and Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery is one of the jazz world’s most talented rising stars and in-demand sidemen. For the past decade, Escoffery has toured the globe with trumpeter Tom Harrell, recorded seven CDs with The Tom Harrell Quintet and co-produced four of those releases. He has also been a member of The Mingus Dynasty, Big Band and Orchestra since 2000 and has made several recordings with that group. He has recorded and performed internationally with the who’s who in jazz including Ron Carter, Ben Riley, Abdullah Ibrahim, Eric Reed, Carl Allen, Al Foster, Billy Hart, Eddie Henderson, Rufus Reid, Wallace Roney, and Herbie Hancock.

• 4:30 PM: Chano Dominguez - Piano Iberico

For over 40 years, internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Chano Domínguez has integrated the rhythms and languages of jazz and flamenco, placing him among the most influential musicians in the history of flamenco-jazz. He has released over 20 albums as a band leader, and has collaborated extensively with other jazz artists including Paquito D’Rivera, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Joe Lovano, Chucho Valdes, Wynton Marsalis, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Piano Ibérico features Chano’s trio of piano, bass, and percussion augmented by flamenco singer Ismael Fernandez and flamenco dancer Sonia Olla. This performance of Chano Domínguez’s Piano Ibérico has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America’s 2017 New Jazz Works program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

• 7:30 PM: Nate Smith + KINFOLK

Since moving from Chesapeake, Virginia to New York City in 2001, Nate Smith has helped reinvigorate the international jazz scene with his visceral style of drumming by playing with such esteemed leading lights as guitarist Pat Metheny, bassist Dave Holland, saxophonists Chris Potter and Ravi Coltrane, and singers Patricia Barber, Somi, and José James. The New York Times described Smith as “a firecracker of a drummer.” Smith’s rising career reaches a new benchmark with the release of his bandleader debut, KINFOLK: Postcards from Everywhere, on which he fuses his original modern jazz compositions with R&B, pop, and hip-hop.

Sunday, September 15

• 1:00 PM: John Ellis & Double-Wide

Gifted, versatile saxophonist/clarinetist/composer John Ellis occupies an imaginary (and extremely imaginative) space directly between the celebratory, welcoming spirit of New Orleans and the edgy, frantic streets of New York City. Ellis expresses a keen intellect and easy virtuosity while maintaining a mischievous gleam in his eye and never letting tongue stray far from cheek. That dichotomy perfectly encapsulates his group Double-Wide’s split metropolitan personality, with a chainsaw-juggling balance of bayou brass, raucous gospel, and devil-may-care modern jazz.

• 2:45 PM: Nicole Zuraitis

Grammy-nominated vocalist, pianist, and songwriter, Nicole Zuraitis blends clever song writing skills, an effervescent presence and dazzling vocals in a consummate package that has thrilled audiences around the world. While pursuing a career that has spanned jazz, pop and classical, Nicole has collaborated with Cyrille Aimee, Thana Alexa, Dave Stryker, Livingston Taylor, Tom Chapin, Omar Hakim, Melanie Safka, Helen Sung and Bernard Purdie. She is the vocalist for the world-famous Birdland Big Band in New York City and her latest album Hive Mind won Best Jazz Album in the 2018 International Music and Entertainment Awards.

• 4:30 PM: Dafnis Prieto Sextet

Cuban drummer, composer, bandleader and MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellow Dafnis Prieto’s revolutionary drumming techniques and compositions have had a powerful impact on the Latin and jazz music scene, nationally and internationally. His latest big band album Back to the Sunset recently won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. Since his arrival to New York in 1999, Prieto has worked in bands led by Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico, and Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Samuels and The Caribbean Jazz Project, Jane Bunnett, D.D. Jackson, Edward Simon, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Bebo Valdés, Roy Hargrove, Don Byron, and Andrew Hill.