On Wednesday morning, with the Hunt Middle School Jazz Band’s repertoire of standards as a soundtrack, bassist and composer Anthony Tidd and Flynn executive director Jay Wahl announced the full lineup for the 2025 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival from the Flynn Main Stage.
Tidd, a Guggenheim Fellow, follows Michael Mwenso, Lakecia Benjamin and Adi Oasis as a guest curator for the festival, which runs Wednesday to Sunday, June 4 to 8, at venues throughout Burlington. Aside from two ticketed Flynn Main Stage events — the previously announced festival opener “Origins: Sounds and Stories of the African Diaspora” and the closing-night performance and presentation by saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, “Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane” with harpist Brandee Younger — BDJF is otherwise completely free, as it has been in recent years.
The festival again features big acts at Waterfront Park. Dumpstaphunk headlines a celebration of influential funk legends the Meters on Friday, June 6, featuring none other than Meters founding member George Porter Jr. Other acts that day include Afro-Cuban duo OKAN, the Roy Hargrove Big Band and Burlington vocalist Kat Wright.
The Waterfront Park show on Saturday, June 7, is a tribute to hip-hop’s relationship with jazz, including a performance by New Orleans brass band the Soul Rebels with special guests hip-hop royalty Rakim and Talib Kweli. They’re joined by Virginia jazz quintet Butcher Brown; Tidd’s own band, Quite Sane; and local polyrhythmic groove outfit Sabouyouma.
Largely dormant for recent festivals, the Flynn Space hosts a number of shows this year, starting on Thursday, June 5, with electro-funk duo Paris Monster and Vermont jazz-funk instrumentalists Vorcza. Another highlight of the Flynn Space lineup is a set by 100-year-old Sun Ra devotee Marshall Allen on June 7.
Vermont Comedy Club will once again transform into the jazz club Big Joe’s throughout the festival. Unlike in years past, the club will open earlier in the evening and feature a slew of performances, including the Rachel Ambaye Quartet, the Grippo Sklar Quartet, Melissa Aldana, the Dan Ryan Express and many more. Big Joe’s is also the late-night hot spot, where many of the musicians performing at the festival will jam and mingle with the local jazz scene.
BDJF continues its long tradition of honoring local school jazz programs, welcoming 43 student bands to perform on the Church Street Marketplace throughout the event — almost 1,000 students performing over five days.
From a podium on the Flynn stage, Tidd lauded Burlington as “the perfect setting for an amazing jazz festival — it has everything you want.”
“Having played many jazz fests around the world, the ones I admire are the ones that retain the personality of the place where the jazz festival happens,” he said.
“The jazz festival continues to be such a powerful force in bringing our community together,” Wahl said. “Each year, Burlington comes alive with music, and you can truly feel the joy and energy building as the city fills with people celebrating these incredible artists.”
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit flynnvt.org.
This article appears in Vermont Cannabiz Guide.
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