This free event will feature many great jazz artists. Those tapped to appear include the Russ Kassoff Trio, Bucky Pizzarelli with Ken Peplowski and State College Area School District Alumni Catherine Dupuis and Ian Hendrickson-Smith.
Kassoff has had a very long and successful career as a jazz pianist. He was the pianist for Frank Sinatra in the 1980s and played for Liza Minnelli in the 1990s. He has played with Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow and Carly Simon, just to name a few.
Pizzarelli is a guitarist who has been playing jazz for more than 50 years. Pizzarelli played in the Doc Severinsen Band for The Tonight Show, and has even toured with Benny Goodman.
Peplowski is a clarinetist who began his professional career at the age of nine, making local jazz and radio appearances. Since then he has played with many musicians, such as Mel Torme and Peggy Lee.
Dupuis is the featured jazz vocalist. She said this event is special for her because she grew up in State College and is always glad to return to her roots.
"It's going to be great music everywhere," Dupuis said.
She organized the jazz festival and moved it downtown because she wanted to give something back to her hometown that gave her so much, she said.
"Last year's event was only one day, but it had a fabulous turnout, even for a hot day," Dupuis said.
This year's event promises to be bigger and better than last year. A new sponsor, the Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau, is helping to bring in even more people than last year. The bureau has been promoting the Jazz Festival for the last few months in major cities across the country such as New York and Washington, D.C. It's billed as a weekend getaway for jazz lovers, Dupuis said.
All money raised will go toward the Extracurricular Endowment Fund of the State College Area School District, which will help out about 85 different clubs at the high school.
"I wanted to do something that would benefit the kids," Dupuis said.
