The two week long, ten day long jazz emersion experience AKA the Berks Jazz Festival begins the last Friday in March on the 31st and extends to the second Sunday in April on the 9th. The opening night Celebration features Patti Austin, Jonathan Butler and Gerald Albright at the ornate Santander Center in downtown Reading, PA.

And that’s just the early 7:30 show! Later that same evening a New Urban Jazz party will feature Tom Brown – of Mr. Jamaica Funk fame- along with Marion Meadows and Walter Beasley at the Hilton Ballroom at 10:00 pm., then Gerald Veasley closes out the evening with the Midnight Jam session with Karen Briggs, Brian Bromberg, Eric Darius and a half dozen other musicians who are in town for the festival and make it a tradition to drop in late for the jam sessions.

The Berks Jazz Fest is true aficionado’s delight as legends like ‘FOURPLAY’ with Nathan East, Bib James, Harvey Mason and Chuck Loeb perform the following Saturday night, but if you are bored during the day, the always outrageous and flamboyant Nick Colionne and Eric Darius comes back for a 2 o’clock Day Party!

And if you didn’t get enough Jamaica Funk on Friday, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station are due to pull their west coast baggage into the Hilton Double Tree at 10 that night. But do stay for “SNARKY PUPPY”, a Super Band tribute on Sunday afternoon featuring Randy Brecker, Dean Brown, Bill Evans and Tom Kennedy.