We dedicate Oregon Festival of American Music 2025 (both Winter and Summer) to an exploration of the relationship between jazz and the Classic Songbook, which, of course, has always provided the lion’s share of the musical source material upon which jazz musicians base their art. At this Winter’s kick-off, Chuck Redd and company begin that journey with 4 concerts which each focus on a Songbook composer whose popular work, written almost exclusively for the theatre, has been drawn upon heavily over the years by jazz musicians: Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin and Cole Porter.
As usual there will be 4 unique concerts, the Jazz Party on the final day of the festival (this year Sunday January 26 at 4 pm), talks, lectures & a community sing along.