Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is back for it's 42nd year. This year's festival, produced by the Flynn and presented by Vermont Tire And Service Inc. with Nokian Tyres, takes place across Downtown Burlington The Flynn is also thrilled to announce that Anthony Tidd, an international jazz artist, multi-instrumentalist and Guggenheim Fellow, will serve as the curator for the 2025 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Tidd will present an exclusive World Premiere of Origins: Sounds and Stories of the African Diaspora, a collaborative performance showcasing seven jazz musicians and seven special guests.

Schedule of Events:

Flynn space

5:30 PM - Vorcza
Flynn Space

Free

Vorcza is explosive; a musical evolution at high speed.  Performing an official Discover Jazz Festival show for the first time since 2022, this instrumental trio is composed of Ray Paczkowski on hammond organ and keyboards, Gabe Jarrett on drums and Rob Morse on acoustic and electric bass.  Though the three members are known for their sideman roles in groups from the Trey Anastasio band to the Hadestown Orchestra, the democratic unit that is Vorcza (or Vorcza Trio) has been playing together for 25 years and has continued to move and inspire crowds with their singular brand of fiery, danceable jazz/funk improvisation.

A standout on the eastern U.S. creative music circuit since its inception in the early 2000's, Vorcza has two albums of original material to their credit and have appeared on stage with luminaries Trey Anastasio, Peter Apfelbaum, Josh Roseman, Cyro Batiste and Nicholas Cassarino among many others.  After performing at festivals from Bonnaroo to Evolve in Nova Scotia, Vorcza returns to its Vermont roots this summer at the Discover Jazz Festival.

Location: Flynn Space 153 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401.

7:30 PM - Paris Monster

Free

Beat-driven. Employing heavy elements of funk and soul, paris_monster closes a gap between synthesized sound And garage; between modern detail and old-school grit. Solid earth. Soaring soundscapes. A mass of noise. Volatility. Vocal singularity.

Dirty, glitchy, lyric-centered, groove-based. Funk and soul join with lyrical themes of bygone eras in rural settings. Characters lost, mortality confronted. Love achieved, and denied. Americana. These themes stand in stark contrast to pounding grooves and electronic mayhem, creating depth and dimensions that could have been otherwise achieved only by dropping a modular synth in the corn fields of central New York or the woods of Connecticut.

paris_monster follows up the recent release of their latest full-length album "Opalesce" immediately with the singles "Laugh It Off" and "Say It Again".

Location: Flynn Space 153 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401.

9:30 PM - James Francies

Free

Since his debut album Flight entranced listeners in 2018, pianist-producer James Francies has expanded personal explorations of sound bending and orchestral approaches to the music. Collaborations across stylistic realms — including those with Childish Gambino, Pat Metheny, Mark Ronson, The Roots, YEBBA, Chris Potter, Common, Eric Harland, Marcus Miller, DJ Dahi and Ms. Lauryn Hill — have enhanced his development and refined his sound. In issuing Purest Form, his second Blue Note release, Francies accesses intimate chambers of his artistry across 14 tracks, interpreting love, grief, frailty, and fortitude.

Francies' expression blooms across false borders of genre and style. He nurtures a celestial fascination with melody and texture. "Music, in its purest form, is an honest space we're trying to get to where there are no preconceived ideas of what we think something should sound like," says Francies. "When you really tap into who you are on the inside, musically and as a person, that energy supersedes anything else."

The Houston native-turned-New Yorker spent the past year and a half planning each component of Purest Form, down to song sequence. "I really took my time with it," he says. The album's sole producer, Francies spent many hours sending ideas and raw elements back and forth with mixing engineer Jason Rostkowski who served as co-recording engineer with Josh Guinta at GSI Studios in Chelsea. With similar setups at Francies' home studio and GSI, the process of remote mixing heightened accuracy and nuance. "We spent several months dialing everything in and mixing it," he says. "It was a super thorough process."

Francies' sonic marksmanship radiates from the first fade-in. "Adoration" summons an immersive world that shapeshifts through the recording. The track features spoken word from Francies' beloved wife Brenda, her voice submerged in waves of resonance. "Levitate" spotlights interlocking lyricism and sparking pulses of collective intuition among the album's core trio, frequent Blue Note stablemates Burniss Travis on bass and Jeremy Dutton on drums. For more than a decade, the three Houston-raised artists have been playing together and developing alongside one another. Throughout the high-velocity track, they interpret snaky arcs of melody and rhythmic subversions with fire and grace. "Transfiguration" welcomes longtime collaborator and fellow Blue Note artist Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone. Following Francies as lead improviser, he spins a sonic kaleidoscope of lines and lamentation.

Appearances from fellow Houston native, guitarist Mike Moreno and Chicago-grown New Yorker and Blue Note artist, vibraphonist Joel Ross serve the record's soulful harmonic depth and textural layering. Ross performs a blistering solo on "Where We Stand" while Moreno gravels his distinct tone on "Eyes Wide Shut" as Francies plays into the liquid ether. All five artists take the lead on "My Favorite Things," an arrangement Francies wrote at age 15. "I love just demolishing songs that don't need to be touched," he says, "but I still touch them [laughs]." He and Dutton decided together that everyone would solo on the recording. "All of us are best friends," says Francies. "So we thought, ‘This'll be the longest track on the album, but we'll all get a chance to just play.'"

Because Francies' aesthetic is as orchestral as it is melodic, Purest Form unveils creative partnerships with some of the music's most compelling vocalists. Peyton, Francies' former classmate at HSPVA, lends her ethereal presence and songwriting talent to "Blown Away." After receiving the song from Francies, Booker sent it back to him, fully realized. "It felt like a perfect collaboration," he says. "I think she's the next great singer out of Houston."

Fellow Texan Elliott Skinner and GRAMMY Award-winning artist Bilal also appear on Purest Form, each composing original lyrics for their respective tunes. "Rose Water" serves Skinner's unyielding vulnerability. A kind of resonant whisper at times, his voice befits Francies' tender luminescence. "He's such an incredible singer," says Francies, "and I was really hearing a male voice for the song." Francies and Bilal co-wrote "Eyes Wide Shut," the album's rock anthem, seven years earlier, and recorded it remotely while Bilal was at home in Morocco.

Named for Houston's longstanding area code, "713" serves the trio's intrinsic connection. Francies colors in and outside the lines, taking bold chances in performance and production. Evoking those mysterious paradoxes — dense and weightless, laid back and flexed, sparse and crowded — the trio sinks into a groove. Buoyed by Travis' fluid foundation, Dutton selects moments to meet Francies' netting of production with his signature matrices of patterns and articulation.

Lo-fi and mood-bending, "Melting" reflects Francies' breadth as a songwriter and producer. "I feel like I'm in two different worlds," he says. "I'm using whatever tools I have in my bag to get my voice and what I'm hearing in my head out on record."

From a combination of tireless dedication and a little magic, Purest Form came together at a challenging time for Francies. His mother Shawana passed away a day after he finalized the album. "It was as though she knew," he says. Shawana, who's played a critical role throughout Francies' musical development, called him into her room after he'd already composed "Still Here," one of the album's two string quartet interludes. In her shimmering vocal, she laid out a musical idea that complemented what he'd written, even though she'd never heard the music. "It's almost as though she's singing in tempo with strings she doesn't even hear," says Francies.

His father James Francies, Sr. shares a stirring spoken word contribution on "Freedmen's Town." Reading excerpts from his own memoir, Francies, Sr. discusses the stark resonance of generation loss as a result of systemic racism in the United States. "I didn't have to do much," says Francies. "Everything, even the cadences, worked so perfectly."

For Francies, Purest Form is more than a recording. It's an essence. "I hope that what I was trying to go for — an immersive, multidimensional experience — really reaches people. I hope that for 56 minutes, they step into this world of sounds and textures. That's the idea. And [laughs] I hope it sounds good on every speaker."

Location: Flynn Space 153 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401.

Big Joe's
at Vermont Comedy Club

8:30 PM - Rachel Ambaye Quartet
At Big Joe's

Free

Rachel Ambaye is a jazz vocalist and composer from South Burlington, Vermont. She is a recent graduate from the University of Vermont, where she completed degrees in both Jazz Studies, Global Studies and minored in French. She is passionate about sound, the memories it awakens, and its connection to culture. Rachel cherishes her studies and performances of jazz, as they allow for further education, connection, and exploration of African American culture—an expansive culture that has been integral to the foundations of this country. She will begin pursuing her Masters of music in Jazz Performance at New England Conservatory this upcoming Fall.

Rachel Ambaye will be joined by three incredible local musicians, Tom Cleary on piano, Jeremy Hill on bass, and Zach Brownstein on drums.

Location: Vermont Comedy Club 101 Main St Burlington, VT 05401

10:00 PM - Parker Shper Ensemble

Free

Parker Shper's original music for Piano, Synthesizers, and various expanded ensembles include drone-like psychedelic soundscapes, minimalist piano ostinatos, growling synthesizers, and percussive samples. Layers of compelling melodies and open-sounding harmony form jumping-off points for improvisations.

Shper grew up in Central Vermont, playing piano by ear from a young age. He began classical piano studies at age 6 and became the pianist for the Vermont Youth Orchestra and the VT All-State Jazz Ensemble by his teenage years. He remained in New England for several years, working professionally composing for his groups, playing with various bands, and on many recording sessions. In 2005 he moved to Montreal to attend McGill University where he pursued studies in Jazz Piano Performance. During his studies, he spent a year living abroad in Sweden studying Music at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, forming ongoing connections with musicians from the creative and imaginative Scandinavian music scene.

He has performed piano, synths and Hammond organ with such artists as Leif Vollebekk, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Michael Chorney, Anais Mitchell, The Barr Brothers, Craig Finn (The Holdsteady), Trey Anastasio, Alexi Murdoch, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Land Of Talk, Akil The MC (Jurassic 5), and many more.

Location: Vermont Comedy Club 101 Main St Burlington, VT 05401

43+ Student Bands
school Bands from throughout the area play along Church Street

Student Bands
Church Street
Cost: Free

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