The Rubber City Blues & Jazz Festival has a lot to celebrate this year, considering it’s the 10th anniversary for the downtown event, which will run Sept. 4-6.
The festival will feature more than 30 artists this year over three days of events at BLU Jazz+, the Phoenix Room, the Akron Art Museum, Musica, the Cascade Locks Park waterwheel sculpture, Downtown Akron Main Library, Cascade Plaza and Lock 3.
Nearly all of the 35 performances and events are free, with the exception of the Lock 3 concert by jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum from 8:30 to 9:45 p.m. Sept. 6, with The Michael Austin Project opening the show from 7 to 8 p.m. Tickets start at $67. See www.etickets.com/concerts/jazz-blues/kirk-whalum-michael-austin-akron-oh-09-06-2025/7183991/t.
Among his many accomplishments, Whalum previously toured with Whitney Houston.
“He’s an excellent musician and has been around for a long time,” Festival Artistic Director and co-founder Theron Brown said of Whalum. “He’s known more as a smooth jazz musician but he plays it all.”
Whalum, who has gospel roots and grew up in Memphis, draws large crowds, Brown said.
“He’s one of my inspirations and I love his music and his sound,” Brown said. “I think he does a good job of blending gospel and jazz.”
Brown, an Akron jazz pianist and artistic director for Open Tone Music, started the Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival in 2016 with a grant from the Knight Foundation. The festival’s goal is to celebrate Akron’s legacy as a jazz and blues hub and to engage the community through blues and jazz.
Brown will be performing with the Theron Brown Trio, featuring Jon Lampley, Friday night at BLU Jazz+.
Lampley, a New York-based trumpeter originally from Tallmadge, is the festival artist in residence. He’ll also be giving a free masterclass open to the public from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 5 at the University of Akron’s Guzzetta Hall and a free performance with Night Service from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Akron Art Museum.
Lampley, who graduated from Ohio State University and started the jazz-funk band the Huntertones there, has been playing in the house band for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for a decade.
Most of the other artists this year are from Northeast Ohio. Brown said this year’s festival is smaller due to diminished funding. In the past, the festival has had more national artists and as many as 50 acts.
“This year’s been a struggle just because of money and how we fund things. Granting has been a big issue,” due to cuts in federal arts funding, Brown said. “Everybody’s bleeding.”
“If national funds aren’t coming out, then the state isn’t getting anything and of course, smaller groups like us who are just trying to make something happen from the ground … the resources that we had built aren’t all there and they don’t look the same as it did five, 10 years ago,” he said.
Even so, Brown promises the music’s going to be amazing at this year’s festival, whose focus has always been the community.
“You look at the festival, it’s like a child almost. At 10 years, there’s a lot more maturity,” he said. “It makes me feel good because that means it’s not just my dream and hope, it’s everybody’s that’s involved.”
Here’s the schedule for the milestone 10th anniversary festival.
Thursday, Sept. 4
Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St.
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: Pulse
7 to 8 p.m.: JT’s Electrik Blackout
BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St.
7:30 to 8 p.m.: Youth performance by Open Tone musicians
8 to 9:45 p.m.: Ronell Regis’ Musical Testimonial
19 to 11:30 p.m.: Jam session with Garrett Folger
Friday, Sept. 5
Guzzetta Hall, University of Akron, 228 E. Buchtel Ave.
4 to 6 p.m.: Masterclass with Jon Lampley, free and open to the public
BLU Jazz+
8 to 9 p.m.: Jennifer James Trio
9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Theron Brown Trio featuring Jon Lampley
10:30 p.m. to midnight: Wave Magnetik
Akron Main Library Auditorium, 60 S. High St.
4:30 to 7:30 p.m.: Heritage in Music Exhibit
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: Barbara Rosene
7 to 8:15 p.m.: Kevin Martinez’s Reclamation Band
Saturday, Sept. 6
Cascade Locks Park stage at the waterwheel, across from Mustill Store, 57 W. North St.
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Rachel Osherow
12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.: Tim Mirth Trio
1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.: Youth performance by Open Tone
Cascade Plaza, 122 S. Main St.
11 a.m. to noon: Youth Voice in Music talk
12:15 to 12:45 p.m.: Youth performance by Open Tone
1 to 2 p.m.: History Unlocked talk
2:30 to 3:15 p.m. George Delancey Sextet
3:45 to 4:30 p.m.: Max Schlenk
5 to 5:45 p.m.: Norside
6:15 to 7:30 p.m.: Nathan-Paul & the Admirables
Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: Artistry Meets Finance session
3:15 to 4 p.m. The Michael Weber Show
4:45 to 5:30 p.m.: Aaron Smith & RDAA
6:15 to 7:30 p.m.: Joe Lampley with Night Service
Musica, 51 E. Market St.
7 to 7:45 p.m.: Bethany Joy
8:15 to 9:30 p.m.: Bobby Selvaggio & Red Rhinoceros
10 to 11:30 p.m. The Smokeface Band
11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Late night jam with Smokeface
Lock 3 (only concert with ticket charge), 200 S. Main St.
7 to 8 p.m.: The Michael Austin Project
8:30 to 9:45 p.m.: Kirk Whalum
BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St.
8 to 8:45 p.m.: Saxophonist Ashton Blake
9:15 to 11 p.m. Sammy Deleon Jazz Group
Phoenix Room at Bar Phoenix (formerly Baxters Bar), 205 S. Main St.)
10 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Jam session
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joints will be jumping downtown with 10th annual Rubber City Blues & Jazz Festival
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
