Edison, Metuchen To Host First-Ever Middlesex County Jazz Festival

EDISON, NJ — Five Central New Jersey towns, including Edison and Metuchen, are coming together to host the first-ever Middlesex County Jazz Festival. Performances are slated from Sept. 28 - Oct. 1, 2023.

Organizers include Edison Councilmember, Perth Amboy Artworks, New Brunswick Jazz Project, Woodbridge Arts and the Metuchen Arts Council and Friends of Metuchen Arts.

The close ties between the leaders of these organizations inspired the idea of the first-ever Middlesex County-centered jazz festival.

Given Edison’s strong high school jazz program, an invitation was extended to Councilwoman Joyce Ship-Freeman to join the festival.

“Having made a promise to my constituents to bring more live jazz programming to our community, I was more than happy to get behind the effort for Edison to join the Middlesex County Jazz Festival,” Ship-Freeman said.

Lynne Mueller, who heads the team producing Metuchen Jazz events for several years said, “we certainly have the audience for it as the number of people attending events is rapidly growing.”

The Middlesex County Jazz Festival will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 28 at Edison’s Papaianni Park. The J.P. Stevens High School Jazz Ensemble will kick off the first evening of the Festival at 6 p.m., followed by the band Delegation at 6:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., the evening’s headliner and much-admired local jazz musician Victor Querzada and his Latin Jazz Band will perform.

On Friday, Sept. 29, Perth Amboy Artworks presents a double bill featuring Julian Meyers Concept at 6 p.m. followed by Afro-Peruvian jazz band Forbidden Tropics at 8 p.m. The Perth Amboy concert will be held at the historic Ferry Slip located at 300 Front Street along the Raritan Bay.

On Saturday, Sept. 30, the Festival continues in New Brunswick at 1 p.m. on the street in front of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center at 11 Livingston Avenue, with the New Brunswick Jazz Project Brass, followed by Conrad Herwig Latin Side at 2:45. Then at 4:30 p.m., the headliner Nat Adderley Jr. takes the stage.

At 6 p.m. on Sept. 30, the Festival moves to Metuchen with a line-up that features performances by The Jill Justin Dance Alliance; Metuchen High School Jazz Ensemble with Band Director John Messenger at 6:30 p.m.; Molly Ryan and Manhattan Premier at 7:00 p.m. and, the main performer of the evening, Cyrus Chestnut Quartet at 8 p.m.

The performances will take place at the Metuchen Town Plaza located at the corner of New and Pearl Streets in downtown Metuchen.

On Sunday, Oct. 1 the Festival finishes in grand style at 3 p.m. on the Summer Stage at Parker Press Park located at 400 Rahway Avenue in downtown Woodbridge.

The Woodbridge High School Jazz Choir will open the event, followed by The Edmar Castaneda Quartet at 3:45 p.m. At 5:15 p.m., a much-anticipated performance by the Alicia Olatula Quintet closes out the festival.

All Middlesex County Jazz Festival concerts are free and accessible.

For concert details and up-to-date announcements visit Middlesex County Jazz Festival. Grant funding for the festival has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.

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