Come ‘hang’ with Chris Cortez at Blue Bamboo Credit: Courtesy photo

The annual festival by local jazz bastion the Blue Bamboo is back and even bigger this year as a four-day extravaganza. It launches Thursday with a free kickoff event featuring two sets, the first one by Chris Cortez and Friends and the second from the Alain Bradette Quartet. From there, the double-feature concerts extend through the weekend.

Friday’s lineup commences with pianist John Redfield and concludes with Septessence, a fresh new group featuring members of UCF’s Flying Horse Big Band. On Saturday, Blue Bamboo boss Chris Cortez returns to usher in a bluesy turn when he opens solo to prime the way for headliner Blues Beatles, the Brazilian band who reinterpret the Fab Four’s hits through the floor-stomping lens of Chicago blues. The festival wraps with a Sunday matinee show featuring the full big-band splendor of Greg Parnell’s Orlando Jazz Orchestra.

In addition to the music, the festival this year will also display From Ella to Coltrane: The Jazz Photography of Roger Kallins, a career-spanning exhibition of the star-studded work of the late British jazz photographer.

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More than simply another return of an annual tradition, let this year’s edition be a reminder of why Blue Bamboo is so vital to our cultural fabric and why you should support them. Especially now when they’re in the throes of an urgent drive to raise funds to stay alive in the face of a major upcoming rent hike that could force them to either completely uproot or, gulp, close altogether.

Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 14-17, Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, $16-$45.

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This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2023.

Music columnist.