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Check Out Live Jazz Concerts at the Jamaica AirTrain

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | October 1, 2014 9:44am
 Eric Lemon (center) will kick off the series with his band this Thursday.
Eric Lemon (center) will kick off the series with his band this Thursday.
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QUEENS — Jazz music will welcome visitors to Jamaica, a neighborhood pivotal in the development of the genre, with a series of performances at the AirTrain complex.

As part of The AirTrain Jazz Festival, held at the station's mezzanine, musicians will be playing on Thursday evenings for eight weeks.

“We want to provide a 'cultural greeting' to folks who are coming to Jamaica,” said Greg Mays of A Better Jamaica, a nonprofit that promotes neighborhood cultural events and came up with the idea.

Mays said he wanted people traveling through Jamaica to have a similar experience as people visiting Caribbean countries, who are often greeted by calypso bands at the airports.

Eric Lemon, a Jamaica-based musician, who is scheduled to open the series this Thursday, said the neighborhood is a perfect spot for the festival.

“Jamaica, Queens, historically was one of the most important jazz communities in the country,” he said.

Among the jazz artists who lived or had strong connections to the neighborhood are Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Thomas Wright Waller, Lester Young and Lena Horne, Lemon said.

The festival “will be very beneficial to the neighborhood,” because it will remind visitors of Jamaica's rich cultural legacy, Lemon said.

A number of local musicians will participate in the series, including Adebayo Fayemi, Bill Jacobs and Freddy Dugard, organizers said.

Simone Price, executive director of the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, which co-organizes the series, said the goal is to show “people coming to the area how cultural we are.”

Price, who in the past had organized a number of jazz concerts at the plaza in front of the Queens Civil Court building, noted that she also hopes the series may become a popular attraction that will encourage people to stay in the neighborhood longer.

Mays said he decided to organize the concerts during evening rush hour to reach more people, and he hopes to expand the series in the future.

The AirTrain Jazz Festival is scheduled to start on Oct. 2 and will run through Nov. 20. Every Thursday, musicians will perform from 6 to 8 p.m. (two sets with a break in between) at the mezzanine level of the Jamaica AirTrain Station, near the Air Bar, at 93-40 Sutphin Blvd., 2nd Floor.