Music will fill the air in Sag Harbor this weekend as the village's American Music Festival kicks off four days of concerts, all but one free, Thursday at 6 p.m. when Inda Eaton and Friends will take the stage at the Whaling Museum. Also this evening, "Groove Exchange," a jam session for musicians, will happen at the Masonic Temple at 8.
This year's ticketed headline concert features Cecile McLorin Salvant, a highly regarded French-American jazz vocalist, Friday at 8 p.m. at Bay Street Theater. In addition to winning three Grammy Awards for best jazz vocal album, she has earned a MacArthur Genius Grant and the Glenn Gould Protege Prize, as well as kudos from the DownBeat Critics Poll and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.
In a New Yorker magazine article, Wynton Marsalis said, "You get a singer like this once in a generation or two." Of her 2022 album "Ghost Song," Frank Alkyer of DownBeat wrote, "There's an intellectual playfulness to everything that Cecile McLorin Salvant's velvety voice touches. It rises and falls with authority, striking highs that flutter and lows that grumble and roar."
Tickets are $81.88, including fees.
Friday's other concerts, which will start at 4 p.m., feature Wyyrrd at Sag Pizza, Roy Wilson and the Buzzards at LT Burger, 40 Foot Saints (Jody Gambino) at Sen, Meera Raphael at K Pasa, and Reilly Rose at Kidd Squid.
The festival will shift into high gear on Saturday with free music throughout the village. The percussion ensemble Escola de Samba Boom will bring its rhythms to the windmill at 10 a.m. Other familiar acts set for Saturday are Mambo Loco at the Sag Harbor Express alley stage, Lina Maxine at Provisions Steinbeck Park tent, Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks and the HooDoo Loungers at the WLIW-FM Marine Park stage, the Marta Sanchez Quartet featuring Caleb Wheeler Curtis at the Masonic Temple, and Spitnkitn at Kidd Squid.
Sunday's roster includes performances by Real East End Brass at Provisions Steinbeck Park tent, Certain Moves at Amy's Hardware, Ludmilla Brasil at Tutto il Giorno, Annie Trezza at Back Page, Paris Ray at Kidd Squid, and Aqua Cherry and Nancy Atlas at WLIW-FM Marine Park stage.
"All performances are one hour unless otherwise noted, making it easy for audiences to experience a wide variety of music throughout the weekend," said Kelly Dodds, the festival's president and co-artistic director.
The music will happen rain or shine. The full performance schedule, which is subject to change, as well as tickets to Ms. Salvant's concert, can be found at sagharbormusic.org.
