Toe-tapping rhythms coming with 3-day Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival in Akron

The Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival is returning for its eighth year next week, with free and ticketed events running Sept. 7-9 at Akron venues including Blu Jazz+, Musica, the Akron Main Library and Goodyear Theater.

The festival's goal is to celebrate the vibrant jazz and blues heritage of Akron, a historical hub on the Midwest jazz corridor for jazz musicians from the 1930s to the 1960s. That includes Akron's famed jazz clubs on Howard Street that drew luminaries including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

Today, the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival spotlights talented Akron-area artists as well as world-renowned acts while honoring Akron's jazz tradition.

"Akron is a giant jazz staple that, in my opinion, has been forgotten in the midst of cities like Chicago, or like a New York, or like a Detroit," said program director Will Blake.

"We have a rich heritage that the team here at Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival does not want to be forgotten," he said.

Blake cited Black proprietor George Mathews' former Matthews Hotel, where Black entertainers stayed while playing at one of nine clubs in the city's vibrant jazz scene on North Howard Street.

"We want to make sure that that story continues to ring throughout Akron and, realistically, throughout the nation," Blake said.

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Festival organizer Open Tone Music expects up to 4,000 guests to attend the three-day festival. The jazz and blues festival's featured lineup includes renowned acts the Huntertones, founded in Columbus and now based in Brooklyn, and Akron's own Grammy-nominated Dan Wilson Plus Voices.

Student musicians from two of Open Tone Music's education programs also will perform.

Here's the schedule of free acts for Akron's eighth annual festival.

Free shows

● Thursday, Sept. 7: Esther Fitz of Cleveland 7:30 p.m., Larry Owens & Lyrical Rhythms 9 p.m. at Musica, 51 E. Market St.

● Friday, Sept. 8: J. Porter Ensemble 6 to 8p.m., in the Akron Art Museum parking lot between South Broadway and South Summit streets.

● Friday, Sept. 8: Yacht Rocket 6:30 p.m. at Dante Boccuzzi Akron (DBA), 21 Furnace St.

● Friday, Sept. 8: salsa dancing with DJ S.O.B. 7, 9 and 11 p.m., Latin jazz by Sammy DeLeon y su Orquesta/Jackie Warren 8 and 10 p.m. at Musica, 51 E. Market St.

● Cedric Talbert Trio 7:15 p.m. outside Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St.

● Friday, Sept. 8: Wave Magnetik and Rowanne Atallah 10:30 to 11:15 p.m. at High St. Hop House/Baxter's Speakeasy, 22 N. High St.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Night People with DJs Rusty, Foxy Trott 12 to 5 p.m. at Baxter's Speakeasy, 22 N. High St.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Akron's Shelby Olive 11:30 a.m. and 1:05 p.m., Alla Boara 12:10 p.m., Bobby Selvaggio 1:50 p.m. Mustill Store Museum, 57 W. North St.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Kevin Martinez 5:30 p.m., Reggie Watkins and Roger Humphries 6:45 p.m., Sunny Tabler 8 p.m., Colin Miller & the Second Nature 9:15 p.m. at Musica, 51 E. Market St.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Dillon Shidemantle 6 p.m., Johnny Cochran Jr. 7:15 p.m., Ronell Regis Grenada Group 8:30 p.m. at DBA, 21 Furnace St.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Brainwreck 10:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. at High St. Hop House/Baxter's Speakeasy, 22 N. High St.

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Here's the festival's featured artists lineup, which requires tickets.

Ticketed events

● Thursday, Sept. 7: Cleveland-based Abstract Sounds 9:15 p.m. at Blu Jazz+, 47 E. Market St. Openers at 8 p.m. will be youth from the Open Tone Music High School Honors Jazz Band and Amistad Caribbean Arts Camp Band. $20.

● Friday, Sept. 8: Curtis Taylor Quartet featuring saxophonist Marcus Elliot 7 p.m., Akron jazz guitarist Dan Wilson Plus Voices 8:20 p.m. at the Akron Main Library, 60 S. High St. $35. Akron's Wilson played with the late jazz great Joey DeFrancesco.

● Friday, Sept. 8: Vocalist Evelyn Wright with the Dave Thomas Trio 8 p.m., drummer Carl Allen 9:15 p.m. at Blu Jazz+, 47 E. Market St. $25.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: Dan Bruce's Ohm! Trio 4:30 p.m., Smokeface 5:45 p.m., singer Erika Denae J 7 p.m., Brandon Woody & Upendo 8:30 p.m. at Blue Jazz+, 47 E. Market St. $40.

● Saturday, Sept. 9: The Huntertones with special guests Nathan-Paul & the Admirables, a funky soul band from Northeast Ohio, 7:30 p.m. at Goodyear Theater, 1201 E. Market St. $35.

Akron jazz pianist Theron Brown, the festival's artistic director who formerly played with the Huntertones, is expected to sit in with the band for a couple of songs during its Goodyear Theater performance.

Both The Huntertones featuring Nathan-Paul & The Admirables are power house horn bands, with the Admirables bringing a rock edge to their music. Tickets for the Huntertones and Nathan-Paul and the Admirables are sold separately through Ticketmaster. See the link at rubbercityjazz.org.

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A full festival pass for $150 includes all ticketed acts. For more information on the jazz and blues festival, including ordering concert tickets, see rubbercityjazz.org or Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival on Facebook.

The festival is also partering with the Akron ArtWalk, which includes a number of activities in Akron's historic arts district Friday, Sept. 8. Among them, the Nightlight will offer a free showing the soul-infused film "The Wiz" in the Akron Art Museum gardens at 8:15 p.m.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 8th annual Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival a cultural celebration