Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1987
The record of the 1987 festival illustrates that it took place on August 1st in the Rich Auditorium on the Woodruff Campus. It was the final year it was called the Atlanta Jazz Festival and Concert Series.
The lineup of performers for the 1987 jazz festival has been lost to posterity and is currently unknown. However, the photographers who have documented the performances over the first 30 years of the festival, in alphabetical order by last name, were: Jim Alexander, Sheila Pree Bright, Michael Reese, Sue Ross, Eric Waters, Julie Yarbrough.
The sponsors were the Stroh Brewery Company, AT&T, Eastern Airlines, The Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Southline, WVEE/V-103 FM and the Phoenix Arts Society.
The poster commemorating the festival was designed by Doug Vachon Advertising, the illustration by Theo Rudnack, printing by National Graphic – Marty Richard and Color Separation by Graphics Atlanta.
The Office of Cultural Affairs is seeking any information or documentation on the musicians who performed at the 1987 festival. Please share by contacting atlantajazz@atlantaga.gov regarding the 1987 performance line-up.
#preserving genius
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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1986
Shirley Cooks has stepped down as the head of the Cultural Affairs and Harriet Sanford takes on the leadership and responsibility of carrying on the legacy in 1986. The Atlanta Jazz Festival and Concert Series would once again present over a series of weekends throughout the summer opening at Chastain Park on May 31st, Grant Park and Zoo Atlanta Natural Amphitheatre on June 7th-8th and July 5th-6th and closing out the summer at Piedmont Park on August 2nd-3rd and August 29th through September 1st.
The lineup once again included a Who’s Who list of performers: Etta James, Bob James & The Jazz All-Stars, The Yellow Jackets, Paquito d’Rivera, T Laviz & His Bad Habitz, Ricky Keller, Yonrico Scott, Paul Winter Consort, Tom Grant Band, John Blake Quartet, Claude Bolling, Otis Rush, John Mayall, Ramsey Lewis Quintet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Hiroshima, Kilimanjaro, Dr. John, Rockin’ Dopsie and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
The Stroh Brewery Company, 94Q Jazz Flavours, National Endowment for the Arts, Eastern Airlines, The Downtown Marriott Hotel, The American Federation of Musicians and The Phoenix Arts Society believed it a worthy cause for the city’s cultural life and came on as sponsors.
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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1985
1985 saw the return of the festival in its 8th annual edition that spanned the summer. The stages spread across the city north at Chastain Park Amphitheater on June 1st, east to Grant Park on June 8th & 9th and July 13th & 14th, and in midtown on August 3rd & 4th and August 30th and September 1st at Piedmont Park.
The lineup was spectacular for that luminous summer with the Gary Burton Quartet, Makato Ozone, Miles Davis, Nancee Kahler and the Section, Stephanie Pettus and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Bill Taylor, Michel Petrucciani, Sphere, Emily Remler & Larry Carlton, David Murray Octet, The Crusaders, Spyro Gyra, Rare Silk, Special EFX, The Yellow Jackets, Steps Ahead, Tania Maria, The Visitors, Shake and Avec, Elgin Wells, The Dan Wall Quartet featuring Carol Veto, the Tom Grose Band, Bob James, Thos Shipley, Betty Carter TRio, Clark College Orchestra, Joe Williams featuring the Norman Simmons Trio, the Ojeda Penn Experience, the McCoy Tyner Trio, Joe Jennings & Life Force, and the Stan Getz Quartet.
While enthusiastic audiences enjoy a great summer of jazz, celebration and tragedy make the news headlines and top stories. Coca-Cola announces and brings back Classic Coke, the pre-“New Coke” Coke, with a new name. In other parts of country, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes while attempting to land at Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, and though the original impact was in an empty field, the plane remained intact, bounced onto a 6-lane highway, and crashed into a pair of water tanks killing 136 out of 167 passengers. Finally, with Cale Yarborough’s broken belt at the Southern 500 in Darlington, SC, Bill Elliott is ensured a million-dollar celebration. Elliott won the Daytona 500 in February and the Winston 500 in May. With the win at Darlington, he became the first person to win three of the top 4 races in the NASCAR circuit.
Amidst the celebrations and tragedies, the Bureau of Cultural Affairs was experimenting with its identity and the “free” was dropped from the name as people came to understand that there was no cover charge or price of admission. It became the Atlanta Jazz Festival & Concert Series and thus began a multiple of weekends that the festival presented music. It would also be the last year that Shirley Cooks would serve as director, and programmer Mark Johnson would continue the legacy under a new leader at the helm.
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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1984
Festival programmer Mark Johnson continues the legacy of jazz under Bureau of Cultural Affairs leader Shirley Cooks with Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Damaris, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Paquito D’Rivera and the Clark College Jazz Orchestra.
The year had other significant events as the groundbreaking for the Carter Center began, after original plans were modified to answer some of the local concerns. Democrat Sam Nunn defeats Republican Jon Michael Hicks in the race for U. S. Senate that begins his 25 year career in Congress, MARTA service extends is service to the Lindbergh Center and Lenox Mall, and Whitney Houston appears in the TV show Gimme A Break as her singing career takes off at the age of 21.
The festival took place from May 25th thru May 29th in Central City Park and Piedmont Park. It was sponsored by the Miller Brewing Company, Better Brands of Atlanta – Distributors of Lowenbrau, Naturally Fresh, National Endowment for the Arts and CBS Records.
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Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1983
Atlanta is no stranger to the heat index and in 1983 on August 20th the thermometer hit 100 degrees just nine days before the opening of the jazz festival. Also that year Georgia was required to pay $3 million dollars to Black workers who were denied promotions at the Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, and The Big Chill which was filmed in Atlanta and starred Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and JoBeth Williams opened in theaters.
Festival programmer Mark Johnson continues the legacy of jazz under Bureau of Cultural Affairs leader Shirley Cooks by bringing another amazing lineup to Atlanta for the sixth annual festival that included Crescent, Allan Harris, Dexter Wise, Windstorm, Chandra Currelly, Family Jazz Ensemble, Billy Gee, Clark College Jazz Orchestra, James Newton Quartet, Space Shuttle, Dan Wall Quartet, Sil Austin, Joi Tobin, Life Force, Jimmy Smith & Kenny Burrell feturing Mike Baker, Steven Dwiggins, Carol Veto, Glenn Wisenbaker, Ojeda Penn Experience, Jeanne Lee, Pharoah Sanders, Furture Experience, Rod Smith, Paul Perez, Khaleefa Haamid and Miles Davis.
From August 29th – September 1st performances were in Central City Park. The final days of the festival performances from September 2nd to September 5th were held in Piedmont Park.
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