Week 7: Jazz

This week I had no idea what to do on Saturday.  My list of things I want to do is getting all checked off so I went on-line to the events calendar for NYC.  It's an awesome tool if  you're not sure what to do.  http://www.nyc.gov/events  You can even set it to show you events that are free or in a certain neighborhood.  WELL, I was looking around and turns out that this weekend was the 37th Americana Jazz Festival!  I've been wanting to go to a jazz club but they have expensive cover charges so I figured I'd just wait for another trip.  Luckily the city answered my call and gave me some of the best jazz I've ever heard for FREE!!!! 

I got off the train and said hello to one of my favorite views!

While I was waiting for festival to start I decided to ride the escalators to the 9th floor of Macy's.  I've been there once, but couldn't remember and I was rewarded with CHRISTMAS!!!!

I then made my way down to Swing Street!  This used to be a street of jazz clubs and now it holds the longest running street festival of the city, the Americana Jazz Fest.

I was quickly greeted by two of my favorite things in the world: amazing jazz solos and yummy street food.  Can't help but love street festivals.    

I walked around the city for a while and when I came back, there was another group from the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts there.  They were amazing and quite a crowd had gathered.  Everyone was enjoying themselves and not afraid to dance and sing along.  Duke's granddaughter runs the center now and she was the announcer.   

There was a trumpet, wind, bass, piano, drums, and violin.  They also had dancers that accompanied a few songs and a few different singers.  It was quite the show.  My favorite was a latinized version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"  which included this amazing growling trumpet solo.

I love this couple.  I don't know how early they got there, but they didn't budge.  They just tapped a long and sang to the music!

An amazing tap dancer.

It was a great day and definitely a good way to end this visit to the city!