DC's Last Cool Fall with the Duke Ellington Arts Festival

Jazz at VOA (Jada Bradley)

Two events that took place yesterday as a part of the last day of  Duke Ellington Jazz Festival had plenty in common: entertainment, a little education and calls for audience participation.

This was the last year that this festival will be in the fall. Next year, the jazz festival will heat up the first two weeks of June.

In the morning, at the THEARC (The Town Hall Education, Arts & Recreation Campus ) in Southeast DC, Nasar Abadey's Legazy Band, which includes his teenage son, gave some youngsters a lesson in jazz basics. He found a way to bring improvisation home to kids, telling them that it is similar to performing freestyle.

That evening, the festival's final performance featured Paquito D'Rivera, the festival's musical director, at the VOA  (Voice of America)'s Cohen Theatre with a cohort of very skilled musicians, many of whom hail from Latin America. One of them, Edmar Castañeda of Columbia, did absolutely impossible things with a harp.

In between selections, D'Rivera gave the audience insight into the value of instruments like the bandoneón. He also treated the audience to tales of jazz legends, including sharing a story about how Dizzy Gillespie once arrived at a South American club dressed as a gaucho and riding a horse.

There was also swag: attendees were treated to a souvenir program booklet that came with a free cd.