19th Annual SJF Main Stage: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

All of Downtown Scranton will serve as center stage for an award-winning music festival as the 19th Annual Scranton Jazz Festival (SJF) returns on August 2, 3 and 4. Over 80 musicians at 20+ venues.

Reminiscent of a New Orleans style festival, two ticketed main stage performances and multiple free venues will be featured throughout Downtown Scranton. Attendees will enjoy national, regional and local musicians, and an extensive unique experience. New this year will be a Saturday afternoon marketplace with live performances and family-friendly activities in partnership with Lackawanna Market.

In celebration of its commitment to the arts, admission is free on Friday. Two ticketed events: Saturday at Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple featuring award winning swing group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Sunday at The Ritz Theater featuring the Emmy nominated Scranton Jazz Festival Big Band with Grammy Award winning saxophonist Joe Lovano will delight the audience.

April 2023 marked the 30 year anniversary of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's remarkable arrival onto the music scene. Since its formation in the early nineties in Ventura, California, the band has toured virtually nonstop, performing an average of over 150 shows a year, and has produced a sizable catalog of recorded music, with sales of over two million albums to date.

During their legendary residency at the Derby nightclub in Los Angeles, they reminded the world that it was still cool to swing. Co-founded by singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, the group was at the forefront of the swing revival of that time, blending a vibrant fusion of the classic American sounds of jazz, swing and dixieland, with the energy and spirit of contemporary culture.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's first phase of stardom featured an appearance in the 1996 indie film Swingers. The band's music has appeared in countless films and television shows, including The Wild, Despicable Me, Phineas & Ferb, Friends, Third Rock From The Sun, Ally McBeal and So You Think You Can Dance. They have appeared live on Dancing With The Stars, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Super Bowl XXXIII Halftime Show.

Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer and producer Joe Lovano performs August 4, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. at The Ritz Theater. With a Grammy Win for his 52nd Street Themes and 14 other nominations, he has won DownBeat Magazine's Critics and Readers Polls countless times. From 1991 through 2016, Lovano released an unprecedented 25 records as a leader for the historic Blue Note Records.

The Emmy nominated, award winning Scranton Jazz Festival 16 piece Big Band, is comprised of world class jazz musicians under the direction of drummer/arranger Marko Marcinko, performing classic big band arrangements as well as modern selections that play a monumental role in jazz history.