Grammy-Winning A Cappella Group Take 6 Takes Main Stage at Scranton Jazz Festival Aug. 4-6

All of downtown Scranton will serve as center stage for the 18th annual Scranton Jazz Festival as the award-winning music festival returns on Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6.

This year's event continues the tradition of a New Orleans-style festival with live music spread across the Electric City. New this year are two ticketed main stage performances, along with multiple free venues featuring national, regional, and local musicians offering extensive variety and unique experiences that local music fans have grown to expect and love.

In celebration of its commitment to the arts, admission is free on Friday. The ticketed shows are 10-time Grammy Award-winning vocal group Take 6 on Saturday, Aug. 5 at the Peoples Security Bank Theater at Lackawanna College and the Emmy-nominated Scranton Jazz Festival Big Band with vocalist Kathy Kosins and special guests on Sunday, Aug. 6 at The Ritz Theater.

Continuing to work with local businesses, more than 20 venues in the downtown Scranton business district will be participating all weekend, hosting Rogue Chimp, Elephants Dancing, Young Lion, Indigo Moon Brass Band, The Merchants of Groove, Teddy Young Power Trio, Phyllis Hopkins Blues Quartet, the Marko Marcinko Latin Jazz Quintet, Keep Out Brass Band, Electric City Steel Drum Project, Tom Kozic Trio, Pennsylvania Jazz Institute Student Ensemble, and many more.

Heralded by Quincy Jones as the "baddest vocal cats on the planet," Take 6 is the quintessential a cappella group and the model for vocal genius. With 10 Grammy Awards, 10 Dove Awards, a Soul Train Award, and as members of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, this musical phenomenon has six virtuosic voices united in crystal-clear harmony against a backdrop of syncopated rhythms, innovative arrangements, and funky grooves that bubble into an intoxicating brew of gospel, jazz, R&B, and pop.

With collaborations and praise from such luminaries as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Whitney Houston, the multi-platinum-selling sextet has toured across the globe and is recognized as the preeminent a cappella group in the world.

The Emmy-nominated, award-winning SJF 16-piece big band is comprised of world-class jazz musicians under the direction of drummer/arranger Marko Marcinko. This all-star jazz ensemble will close the 18th annual SJF with an exciting brassy swinging sound that will bring audiences back to the days when big bands were king.

Award-winning vocalist Kathy Kosins resides in Michigan and is steeped in the jazz tradition as well as all of the energy and intensity of soul. Her most recent album release, "Uncovered Soul," has garnered critical acclaim. Kosins has performed and/or shared the stage with many well-known jazz and R&B artists.