Duke Ellington Legacy Band to kick off Jazzfest

Madison — The Duke Ellington Legacy Band is one of two bands kicking off the Sanofi-Aventis Jazzfest with a free outdoor concert at Drew University in Madison, on June 2 at 6 p.m. The 8-piece Duke Ellington Legacy Band is led by Edward Kennedy Ellington II, the Duke’s grandson, and features Wycliffe Gordon on trombone and Virginia Mayhew on tenor sax. Joining the Ellington Legacy Band will be the nine-piece Ed Polcer Band, a group whose repertoire spans several decades of great swing jazz. Weather permitting, the concert will be held on Carriage House Field. If it rains, the concert will move to Baldwin Gymnasium. Jazzfest, an annual event presented by the New Jersey Jazz Society, continues the weekend of June 9 and 10, when more than 60 musicians play nonstop in three venues on the Drew Campus. The gates open at 11:a.m. each day and the music begins at noon. All of the Jazzfest events have been made possible by the support of corporations and local organizations, including Jazzmobile, Bank of America, Drew University, Toyota of Morristown, RexCorp, Verizon, PNC Wealth Management, WBGO Jazz88FM and JazzTimes Magazine. The Hamilton Park Hotel on Park Avenue in Florham Park is the official festival hotel and offers special discount room rates for attendees. Hamilton Park Hotel will also offer a jazz buffet dinner featuring singer Carrie Jackson and her Trio on Saturday, June 9. Tickets at the gate on June 9 and 10 will be $45 per day or $85 for both days. For more information, advance sale discount tickets and hotel reservations log onto www.njjs.org or call 800-303-6557. Students are $10 and children 12 and under are free. There will be a free shuttle bus from the Madison stop on the NJ Transit Dover line.