This is the weekend that jazz lovers around the country wait for each year, and that is the weekend of the New York Winter Jazzfest. This is the sixth year for the festival, so it is a brand new kid on the block, but make no mistake, this two day festival is filled with some of the biggest names in the world of jazz music today. Not only is this a fun-filled and incredible weekend of performances for the general public, but it is a great time for the musicians themselves, for it is widely known that some of the largest jazz clubs in the city send out scouts, who look for bands and musicians to book in their establishments for the rest of the year, or longer as the case may be.

Excitement fills the streets, from the lounges of New York City’s finest hotels, to the corner pubs and taverns, jazz in the air. Tickets for the public are relatively inexpensive, coming in at twenty-five dollars for one night of shows, or a cool thirty bucks for the entire weekend. At the moment, Winter Jazzfest is the only totally mainstream festival for jazz in the city, and the lineup is out of this world. While it has been called mainstream, there is no shortage of variety, giving way for many different forms of harmony, texture and rhythm.

Lonny Smith, a master of the keys, will be playing his soulful music on his organ at Sullivan Hall. The more hoppin’ sounds of Jaleel Shaw‘s saxophone will have the audience at the Zinc Bar on their feet and dancing. The uber-modern big band of the Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and the chamber music of the Claudia Quintet, are just a few of the names and the sounds that stand testament to the eclectic mix that is the jazz music of today. This is a fine time to be in the city of Manhattan, in fact it’s a swingin’ time in the city if the truth be told.