Providence Jazz & Blues Festival
Shining stars under the stars

by Kirk Feather
Providence Monthly

Very few cities in America can boast of an outdoor performance space as aesthetically dramatic, acoustically sound and comfortable as the amphitheater at Providence's Waterplace Park. With a setting sun glinting off the buildings downtown, a welcome coolness coming with the night air and background views of the Woonasquatucket River and the beautifully designed river walks, Waterplace park is a gem of a space that always seems to bring out the very best in the performers who gather there to share their music with us.

Our nationally acclaimed urban park is the site of the Providence Jazz and Blues Festival. The lineup is an eminently satisfying one, with a diverse and appealing range of music in the offing. This year, two of Providence's most active nonprofit arts organizations, CapitolArts Providence and the Providence Black Repertory Company, have joined forces to produce the Providence Jazz & Blues Festival, a successful venture now in its eighth year.

The festival kicks off on Saturday at 2 p.m. with the Debra Mann Trio. Debra's originals and some well-chosen and impeccably sung standards combine to create a warm, savvy and elegant aura that has won her a loyal audience for more than decade of trio, duo and solo performances in New England and beyond. With impressive keyboard chops that enhance her vocals, Debra's performances project an intimacy in even the largest venues. Within a couple of songs it's easy to hear great influences like Annie Ross, Dave Frishberg, Mark Murphy and Antonio Carlos Jobim, but all of these currents are transformed by Debra Mann into something quite personal and stylistically identifiable. It's highly accessible music with a steely undercurrent of swing, bop, and a generous portion of Latin American spice. Debra Mann's individual stamp is upon it all.