Photo courtesy of Hub+company
Mark Davis and Jamie Breiwick
Mark Davis (piano0 and Jamie Breiwick (trumpet) performing at the Psfister Hotel's Mason Street Grill.
The Riverwest Jazz Festival is back after a three-year hiatus. This year’s event features a raft of local jazz artists and includes a tribute to Manty Ellis, a Milwaukee jazz giant, a guitarist and educator who tutored generations of students.
The festival was organized by Milwaukee Jazz Vision, founded by trumpeter Jamie Breiwick and guitarist Neil Davis, and Milwaukee Jazz Institute (MJI). According to MJI’s director, pianist Mark Davis, “Jamie and I have been performing twice a week together at the Pfister Hotel’s Mason Street Grill for 16 years. In addition to a close musical friendship, we have collaborated on many educational activities as well as community events.”
“Largely, Neil and I had a conversation about the lineup,” Breiwick adds. “It is a goal of ours to be truly representative of the community at large. Sometimes people reach out to us about performing; we try to involve everyone.”
The festival will be held along East Center Street between Humboldt Boulevard and Holton Street with performances at bar centro, Club Timbuktu, Diaspora and the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts. “Our events highlight the resurging local scene here in Milwaukee,” says Neil Davis. “By adding another event in Riverwest, we hope to enhance the capability.”
Impressive Milwaukee Talent
The music begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25 with performances by MJI student ensembles and the Ben Dameron Quartet (Jazz Gallery); Faith Hatch, and DJ Mosh Wah (bar centro); Carlos Adames and WEPA Trio (Club Timbuktu); and Gil Jazz, Manty Ellis Tribute with Sam Belton and an after-fest jazz jam (Diaspora).
It’s an impressive lineup. MJI students have performed at New York’s Charles Mingus festival, Dameron is on the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music faculty, Hatch was honored by Downbeat as Vocal Jazz Soloist of 2020 and the other performers have been seen regularly on stages across the city.
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“An aim of ours is to include musicians of all generations, and specifically to involve student groups,” Breiwick says. “We will be featuring performance groups from Milwaukee Jazz Institute at this one. I believe we have had at least one student group at each of the festivals we’ve produced. This year is no exception.”
Honoree Manty Ellis performed with Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Buddy Montgomery and Stanely Turrentine, and co-founded the jazz program at Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He released a CD in 1997, In His Own Sweat Way.
“Milwaukee has a long and vibrant jazz history that MJI seeks to highlight and preserve,” says Mark Davis. “Like all of our activities, we keep this history in mind as we educate the next generation and present the jazz artists of today. At the festival there will be a special performance led by Sam Belton, which will pay tribute to the legendary and influential Milwaukee guitarist and educator Manty Ellis, who passed away in July at age 93. The greatest way we can honor those like Manty is to keep the music going and introduce a new audience to this exciting art form.”
