Hot Springs JazzFest ready to open

The 2016 Hot Springs JazzFest kicks off on Wednesday evening (Aug. 31) from the Hotel Hot Springs Ballroom. The festival will run nightly through Sunday, Sept. 4 with first night artists, the Rodney Block Collective kicking things off.

The inaugural performance will be followed on Thursday, Sept. 1 by Jazz Night at the Ohio Club featuring the Clyde Pound Trio and The Diva Chicks (Fedette “Lady J” Johnson, Shirley Chauvin, and Dona Petty). On Friday, Sept. 2, the Five Star Theatre will host the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Brass Quintet, the Anything that Moves jazz group, saxophonist and clarinetist Earl Hesse, mezzo-soprano Diane Kesling and Don Gooch who will sing and emcee the evening.

Jazz in the Streets will be the theme on Saturday, Sept. 3, with music emanating from under the Regions Bank Sky-bridge on Broadway Street in downtown Hot Springs’ Entertainment District. The music starts at 12 p.m., and will last until 6 p.m.

The final day will include three events — Jazz Mass at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; Jazz After Church from the Grand Avenue United Methodist Church; and the Stardust Big Band Tea Dance from the Arlington Resort Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom.

For more information on events and lineup, click here.