Reading Liederkranz Community Kickoff Event

A Smorgasbord of Jazz:  Presented by Mount Penn Preserve Partnership, Reading Liederkranz, and Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest will be held on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at the Reading Liederkranz.

Tickets are on sale NOW:  https://bit.ly/SmorgOfJazz24

Doors and Kitchen:  5pm
Show:  6pm-9pm

The Mount Penn Preservation Jazz Band
The region's premier Preservation Jazz band, led by Berks County's Dave Kline, was formed in 2020 to promote the Mount Penn Preserve Partnership through the performance of much-beloved Preservation Hall jazz classics augmented with some fun renditions and adaptations of music from other genres morphed into the jazz style.

Mount Penn Preservation Jazz Band Video

The Gourmet Gypsy Jazz Band
Led by Berks County's Josh Taylor, is the region's premiere Hot Club / Django Reinhart group of stylists taking the audience along for a theater of the mind Gypsy Jazz experience.  The experience beckons back to the iconic Bohemian era along the Seine River in Paris when musicians, deep thinkers, writers, poets, painters and dreamers, sometimes fueled by the "Green Fairee of Absinthe", packed nightclubs, cafes and restaurants as they used jazz and free thinking to express themselves and change the world.

So What
Led by Noah Gibney, is a trio of the best of the best of the region's young jazz players.  Their meteoric rise to prominence is directly connected to their jaw-dropping talent and ability to fluidly move through all styles of jazz music.  Taking their name from jazz icon Miles Davis' landmark song "So What," the group mesmerizes audiences with their adept readings and jams.

So What on Facebook Video

Special Guests include:  Travis "The Mad Fiddler" Wetzel who will bring his gob-smacking violin prowess from Nashville to Reading to dazzle the audience and Chanteuse Tammy Black, principal of Berks Opera, who will treat the audience to several engaging French language jazz classics.

All of the Smorgasbord of Jazz troupe will showcase their individual band style plus interact with each other as the night progresses toward the Grand Finale Jam at which time the evening will reach it's zenith for this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of musicians.

The Smorgasbord of Jazz troupe is:

Tammy Black

Ken Gehret

Noah Gibney

Chris Heslop

Ken Kemmerer

Dave Kline

Trey LaRue

Alan Rochlin

Esteban Ruiz

Dexter Sales

Chuck Steinle

Josh Taylor

Travis Wetzel