About the Northampton Jazz Festival
Cocomama | Pulaski Park | 2022
The Northampton Jazz Festival seeks to expand the exposure of people of all generations, ethnicities and orientations to live jazz, bring new visitors to downtown Northampton, and increase the cultural vitality and economic strength of the city. In so doing, the Northampton Jazz Festival is dedicated to carrying forward our great American music tradition of live jazz for generations to come.
Founded in 2011, we renewed and relaunched the festival in 2018, hosting a rich line-up of jazz artists from across the globe and around the region. In 2018, we initiated the Jazz Artists in the Schools program in partnership with the Band and General Music Instructor at the JFK Middle School in Florence, MA through a generous donation from The Davis Financial Group. We bring professional jazz musicians in to work and play with jazz band students two to three times a year. In 2019, we expanded the program to the Northampton High School as a result of an outpouring of gifts in memory of former Northampton High School student and musician, Elliot Ross.
Staging live jazz all around town in different venues has been such a success that we have continued this model in subsequent jazz festivals. "Downtown Northampton felt like New Orleans last night!" said one patron. "This is the best thing that's happened to Northampton in 10 years," remarked a Main Street merchant. And in 2024, the Downtown Northampton Association is designating September as “Jazz Fest Month.”