The 2021 Jazz and Freedom Festival (Trailer)

CAPITALBOP, SHANNON GUNN AND EATON DC PRESENT: THE SIXTH JAZZ AND FREEDOM FESTIVAL
Fridays at 7pm, February 26 - March 12

Featuring performances by Reginald Cyntje & Allyn Johnson, the Peter Edelman Quintet, the Jazz and Freedom Quintet
and interviews with DeAndrey Howard, Peter Edelman, Wendy Whittington, Nasar Abadey, Brad Linde, Reginald Cyntje, Luke Stewart and Shannon Gunn

LEARN MORE: https://www.capitalbop.com/jaff2021/

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Almost one year into the coronavirus shutdown, we’re starting to hear people reminisce on last March, asking themselves: What was I doing right before the shutdown began? For many of us, a big part of the answer involves going to shows. But now, just 11 months later, many of the spaces where we used to hear live music no longer exist.

For this year’s virtual edition of the Jazz and Freedom Festival, CapitalBop, Shannon Gunn and Eaton DC have produced a series of musical mini-documentaries honoring the legacies of three venues that disappeared in 2020: Twins Jazz, Alice’s Jazz and Cultural Society and Columbia Station.

In 2020, the majority of D.C.’s jazz venues — including Eighteenth Street Lounge, Marvin, Sotto, Twins and AJACS — shuttered, unable to meet their fixed costs without in-person business. It’s uncertain that the District will come out of the pandemic with a single dedicated jazz club remaining.

In normal times, the Jazz and Freedom Festival is a daylong celebration of D.C. jazz’s role in activism and community-building. Working with the musician Shannon Gunn, CapitalBop brings together musicians, organizers, artists and listeners, rallying around a different organization each year doing justice work in the District.

But this year, with in-person gatherings still off the table, the JAFF has turned into a video festival. We’ve produced a three-week series of mini-documentaries on three spaces that D.C. lost in 2020, featuring interviews with musicians and staff who knew the venues best, scored by specially filmed concerts featuring DMV-based artists.