JAM out this weekend at the 21st Jazz and Arts on Riverdale

After attending a number of jazz festivals across the southeast, Edward Clark and his fellow jazz association members thought, “why not have one in Macon?”

In 2004, Jazz and Arts on Riverdale was born, featuring live music, food and family activities. The art part didn’t kick in until the second year, when they found their first featured artist.

This year marks the 21st festival and will run from 12-6 p.m. on Riverdale Drive off of Vineville Avenue. 

“Every year I contemplate whether I really [want to keep doing this], I’m 60 years old,” said Clark, the director of the festival. “It’s a labor of love.” 

Admission is free, and folks can check out the JAM tent for merch, go to the stage for live music, or head to one of the nearly two dozen art vendors lining the street. 

The three musical acts include the Good Friends Band, the JAMbassadors and Hector Nieves and Friends. 

The Good Friends Band is headed by Macon native Evan Jones, who is also a member of the JAM board.

Nieves, Clark said, is arguably the second best jazz flutist in the United States, and while he hails from New York, he’s settled down in Macon.

Clark is the saxophone player for the JAMbassadors, the local representation playing at the festival. The JAMbassadors — the jazz association’s band — go around to schools and get kids excited about music through a program called JAM Goes Back to School.

“We’ve kind of busted it up a notch,” he said of the JAMbassadors. “We’re kind of pushing ourselves to learn some new tunes so we’re all excited.”

Between the second and third acts, the musicians are putting on a second line march — a New Orleans tradition where people parade through the streets to music — in line with their voodoo themed VIP lounge.

Sponsorships and funds raised go toward the jazz association’s music scholarships, one of which is named after the festival’s first ever featured artist, Marc Whitten, and their main program JAM Goes Back to School.

While in the past they’ve had some drama with picking a featured artist, this year’s artist, Brandi Vorhees, is a local artist known for painting flowers.

She has a background in graphic design, and her paintings, “capture the vibrancy and imperfections of the natural world,” according to a festival flier.

Her work will be available for purchase at the featured artist’s booth.

Following the Saturday of festivities, JAM is hosting a jazz brunch at Churchills on Cherry, where the Monty Cole Quintet will play, Clark said.