Photo: Salem Jazz and Soul Festival
SALEM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Artists from around the world are heading to the North Shore for the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival on Saturday.
The event features acts such as Zayra Pola Sessions, a salsa artist from Puerto Rico and a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, and Albino Mbie, another Berklee graduate from Mozambique.
The event goes from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Salem Willows. It’s also free to the public and family-friendly, according to Larry Claflin Jr., the festival’s executive director.
The festival originally started in 2007, and has been donating money to music education around the North Shore ever since then.
Salem has long been known as the witch city, but Claflin said it has quite a music history as well.
“Duke Ellington played at the Willows in 1927 one summer, probably more than 20 shows before he was Duke,” Claflin said.
Along with the main stage, the festival will also feature music education events like arranging video game music and a pop-up percussion and flute jam.
The Salem Trolley will also be shuttling people from downtown Salem to the Willows for $10 round trip on Saturday.
The full festival schedule can be found here.
WBZ’s Drew Moholland (@DrewWBZ) reports.