Dr. Lonnie Smith is one of the headliners at this years Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park
August 21-23, free
www.cityparksfoundation.org
The annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is always a bittersweet affair. The sweet part is three days of free music this year, up from the usual two. The bitter part is that it always comes near the end of the summer season, with Labor Day and school right around the corner. But let’s not worry about that now and instead concentrate on the free concerts at the twenty-second edition, which is part of the CityParks Foundation SummerStage program and begins August 21 at 6:00 in Marcus Garvey Park with Oliver Lake Big Band performing a special commission, the King Solomon Hicks Trio, and Michela Taps: Bird Lives! (“[Parker] was such an innovator and a driving force in this music, as well as an important influence on tap,” tap-dance star Michela Marino Lerman said in a statement. “We hope to contribute, in some way, to his tremendous legacy.”) On Saturday starting at 3:00, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Andy Bey, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Camille Thurman, and Norma Miller will be in Marcus Garvey Park (preceded at 2:00 by a master class taught by Samuel Coleman). And on Sunday at 3:00, Charlie Parker’s lasting influence will be honored in Tompkins Square Park with Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls, Joe Lovano, Myra Melford: Snowy Egret, and Michael Mwenso.