Holyoke Community College to Present 27th Annual Jazz Festival on March 27-28

HOLYOKE — The annual Holyoke Community College (HCC) Jazz Festival returns for its 27th year on Friday, March 27, with vocalist and composer Dominique Eade joining the Amherst Jazz Orchestra and members of the HCC jazz faculty for a big band concert.

The Friday show begins at 8 p.m. in HCC’s Leslie Phillips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts building on the main HCC campus, 303 Homestead Ave. The concert is $10 for the general public and free for HCC students, faculty, and staff.

“I met Eade at the Jazz in July program at UMass that I teach at every summer and enjoyed her singing and educational approach very much,” said HCC Music Professor Bob Ferrier, organizer of the HCC Jazz Festival. “She’s great and highly regarded for her vocal styling and improvisation.”

Led by trombonist David Sporny, the Amherst Jazz Orchestra has been a mainstay of the HCC Jazz Festival since the first one in 1998.

On Saturday, March 28 starting at 10 a.m., Eade, Ferrier (guitar), and HCC Music Professor Ellen Cogen (vocals and piano) will lead workshops, demonstrations, and jam sessions for area musicians. Participation is free and open to the public.

A critically acclaimed vocalist, composer, and long-time music educator, Eade has recorded and co-produced seven albums under her name, landing her on top 10 lists at Billboard, National Public Radio, Entertainment Weekly, DownBeat, and the Jazz Journalist Assoc.

After being signed to RCA Victor in 1998, she was nominated for Best Debut Artist at the first annual Jazz Awards in New York City. She received the 2006 Outstanding Alumni Award from the New England Conservatory, where, as a teacher for more than three decades, she mentored an array of talented musicians, including Roberta Gambarini, Michael Mayo, Rachel Price, Sofia Rei, and Jorge Roeder.

Eade has performed in clubs and at festivals all over the world, from New York’s Blue Note and Los Angeles’s Jazz Bakery to the Panama Jazz Festival and Buenos Aires Jazz Festival. The New York Times called her “an exceptional singer … who weighs a chanteuse’s coolness against a jazz musician’s exploratory instincts.”