For more than 16 years, Woody Woodland and Carol Stone ran two successful jazz festivals a year in Cape May. That ended in a nasty dispute with the festival’s board of directors in 2010, when the couple who had founded the long-running event resigned.
That experience would have soured many people on the thought of presenting another festival, but this weekend Woodland and Stone will be at the helm of what they hope will be the first annual Philly Jazz Festival. “I’ve loved the music for many, many years,” Stone says. “Over the years we developed great relationships with the musicians, and we wanted that to continue.”
The inaugural edition will feature several familiar names, including vocalist Denise King with saxophonist Bootsie Barnes and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, singers Barbara Walker and Jeannie Brooks leading a three-hour open jam session, and bluesman Frank Bey drawing the proceedings to a rollicking close.
If you go
Philly Jazz Fest
Saturday, 1 p.m.-midnight
$35-$100, Sheraton
Philadelphia Downtown
