Big band jazz led by eight-time Grammy winner Christian McBride, blending classic swing with contemporary compositions, as part of the ATX Jazz Fest.
Christian McBride Big Band plays the Moody Amphitheater on Saturday, April 3, as part of the first ATX Jazz Fest. The festival runs from April 2 to 4, put on by ATX Chamber Music and Jazz, and it's a big deal for the city—they're calling it the most concentrated gathering of jazz talent ever assembled in Texas, with more than 29 hours of live music over three days across multiple stages.
McBride is an eight-time Grammy winner, and his big band blends classic swing with contemporary compositions. He's not the only one on the Saturday bill: the Sullivan Fortner Trio, Joel Frahm, Bria Skonberg, the Emmet Cohen Trio, Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, Alfredo Rodriguez & Pedrito Martinez, and Brad Mehldau playing solo piano are all scheduled for that same day. If you're coming for the whole weekend, the festival kicks off Friday night with an exclusive 300-seat concert at Assembly Hall, a converted East Austin venue with polished concrete floors, 16-foot ceilings, and arched windows built for close-range listening. From there, the action moves to the Moody Amphitheater main stage on Saturday and Sunday, with the late-night hours returning to Assembly Hall for jam sessions and small-group sets. Local Austin food vendors will be lined up across the grounds.
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This is the inaugural edition of the festival, and it falls within ATX Music's fourth season, which they describe as their most ambitious undertaking yet. The organization also runs Ensemble ATX, its chamber music collective, and Everyone Deserves Art, an education initiative that brings artists into Title I schools. Weekend passes start at $230 for Standard, $625 for Gold, and $1,305 for Platinum.
