Kurt Elling, one of the true poets of jazz vocal artistry, is a multiple Grammy Award winner, including two for Jazz Vocal Album of the Year for his Secrets Are the Best Stories (2021) and Dedicated to You (2010) albums.  For this DC JazzFest Opening performance, strap on your dancing shoes for Kurt Elling’s vibrant new project Superblue, featuring guitar wizard Charlie Hunter and the Huntertones Horns.

Opening this evening’s show will be one of the DMV’s premier vocalists, Christie Dashiell.  Always a standout performer as part of Howard University’s premier vocal ensemble AfroBlue, Christie Dashiell is rapidly carving out her own unique niche in the world of jazz and beyond vocal artistry, including her cameo on the much-discussed new social justice recording proiject Black Lives – From Generation to Generation.