Middlesex Co. Jazz Festival Kicks Off Thursday In Edison

EDISON, NJ — Middlesex County's first-ever Jazz Festival will begin Thursday in Edison. Five Central New Jersey towns are coming together to host the festival

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.”

For more information, click here.

Here's are the performance dates and line-up:

Edison
Thursday, 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Papaianni Park

• 6 p.m.– 6:30 p.m. JP Stevens Jazz Ensemble, John Zazzedi, Director
• 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. The Delegations
• 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Victor Quezada and his Latin Jazz Band

Perth Amboy
Friday 7 p.m. - 9 p.m., The Historic Perth Amboy Ferry Slip

• 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Julian Meyers Koncept
• 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. Forbidden Tropics

New Brunswick
Saturday, 1 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Livingston Ave. in front of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center

• 1 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. New Brunswick Jazz Project Brass
• 2:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Conrad Herwig Latin Side All-Stars
• 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Nat Adderley Jr. Quartet

Metuchen
Saturday,6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Halsey Street – Metuchen Station Lot 6

• 6 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Jill Justin Dance Alliance
• 6:30 p.m.– 7 p.m. Metuchen High School Jazz Ensemble (big band) ft. John Messenger Band Director
• 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Molly Ryan and Manhattan Premier
• 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Cyrus Chestnut Quartet

Woodbridge
Sunday, 3 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., Parker Press Park, 400 Rahway Ave.
3 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Woodbridge HS Jazz Choir
3:45 p.m. – 5 p.m. Edmar Castaneda Quartet
5:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Alicia Olatuja Quintet