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All of downtown Scranton will serve as center stage when the award-winning Scranton Jazz Festival returns to the Electric City on Friday, Aug. 6 through Sunday, Aug. 8.
The festival was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but now that state health and safety restrictions have been lifted, it’s time to experience live music on a larger scale once again. The 16th annual event features a new format that is reminiscent of a New Orleans-style festival. Instead of utilizing one large main stage, performances will be held in multiple venues throughout the downtown area.
With national, regional, and local musicians, Scranton Jazz Fest fans will still enjoy the extensive variety and unique experience they have grown to expect and love. A fireworks display presented by Scranton Tomorrow and Lackawanna County will add to the celebration when it launches from the Electric City Garage (300 Spruce St., Scranton) on Saturday, Aug. 7 at 9 p.m.
MUSIC IS WORTH IT
Music: Laissez Les BON TEMPS ROULER. Courtesy image
VAX, LAX, ERSKINE
A magician’s wand might look like drumsticks, if in the hands of Santa Monica’s shaman of the skins, Peter Erskine. I’ll go way out of my way any time to see him stroke finely-drawn rhythms out of every small surface of his drum kit, not to show off he is always understated on his instrument, and seems to move his hands and arms in the smallest space possible but because that is exactly what is called for. To make the song breathe, and swim, and move like a dancer. He spends more time on cymbals than any drummer I’ve seen, rarely crashing, sometimes tapping a rhythm but more often somehow creating an overlay of continuous sound as the canvas for everything else.