'Accessible to all people': Savannah Jazz Fest brings free shows with topflight talent

 'There are a lot of other music festivals here that are great, but they have very expensive tickets so not everybody gets a chance to go. Part of our mission as an organization is to keep jazz music accessible to all people.'

JAZZ HAS played a huge role in Savannah’s cultural landscape. Great jazz musicians such as Johnny Mercer, Ben Tucker, and James Moody have been associated with Savannah.

Local jazz lovers will be able to enjoy the annual Savannah Jazz Festival September 18-22. Headliners include guitar wizard and former New York Yankee Bernie Williams (pictured above), Robert Lee Coleman, and Jimmy Hall.

Executive Director of Savannah Jazz, Paula Fogarty, is looking forward to this year’s event. She was initially a board member, and eventually began to chair the festival committee.

Fogarty showed the board what could be done by pursuing sponsors and assisting the sponsors in return. This year’s festival will be Fogarty’s eighth year with the Jazz Festival, which marks its 43rd edition in 2024. 

One thing that sets the Jazz Festival apart, remarked Fogarty, is that it offers more free shows than any other music festival in the Lowcountry. 

“There are a lot of other music festivals here that are great, but they have very expensive tickets, so not everybody gets a chance to go. Part of our mission as an organization is to keep jazz music accessible to all people, especially people who can't afford those expensive tickets," Fogarty explained.

"Jazz music was born to unify people, to bring people together. and it's very much the spirit of this organization to unify people through this fantastic art form called jazz music. That's why we offer more free shows than any other music festival, not just jazz festivals, and that's what makes us unique,” she said. 

                                                      Robert Coleman

Artists and bands are selected through Savannah’s Jazz Ambassador. Notable names such as Teddy Adams, Howard Paul, and Skip Jennings are knowledgeable artists who have previously performed.

Colin Schofield, the board president, has good connections. Fogarty fields requests to perform throughout the year, and meets with the artist’s committee to begin looking at a lineup.

She said that although the Festival doesn't make revenue from ticket sales, everything that’s presented is going to be world-class for the jazz headliners. 

Fogarty said one of the biggest challenges she’s faced was the two lockdowns during COVID. She got the news about one shutdown three weeks before that year's Festival but decided not to postpone. 

At the time, the Festival's position was that “We’re going to deliver music to people who need it now more than ever. We’ve got to get out of our heads, and so we did an amazing partnership with WSAV and through their Nexstar affiliation network. We live-streamed to a studio audience around the world and that first year we reached over 170,000 people globally on every continent except Antarctica,” Fogarty said. 

                                                    Nicole Zuraitis

In 2022 and 2023, the Savannah Jazz Festival hosted over 50,00o people, thoroughly establishing it as a destination event. 

Fogarty remarked that last year’s festival held a special memorable moment. Nicholas Bearde, a lead vocalist from California, was the big headline for that Saturday night. He said that he had rarely seen such a diverse crowd.

He was brought to tears and said that a crowd like that couldn’t exist in California without violence or riots. His experience was so impactful that he and his wife are considering moving to Savannah. 

 “Our audiences are the most diverse and inclusive of any music event in Savannah, with 40% Blacks, 40% Whites, 15% Hispanics, and 5% Asian and other. The Savannah Jazz Festival is truly ‘the people’s festival,’” Fogarty said. 

                                        (photo by John Alexander)

Fogarty said that studying hard and being passionate about jazz is important for those who want to grow as a jazz artist. Both passion and dedication have to come naturally. Local musicians who are a part of the Savannah Jazz Hall of Fame and a part of the Savannah Jazz Orchestra grew up at the feet of the likes of Teddy Adams and Randall Reese. 

“They’ve really cut their teeth, and they worked hard and have listened to their mentors and learned from their elders,” she said. 

Most shows at the Savannah Jazz Festival are free and open to the public. See schedule below.