MIAMI GARDENS – Charlie Wilson will now headline the 11th Annual Jazz in the Gardens (JITG) music festival on Saturday, March 19, 2016 replacing Aretha Franklin who has canceled her March concert dates in Florida due to lack of band personnel.
An eleven-time Grammy nominee, Charlie Wilson has been heralded as a “showman extraordinaire” who sells out arenas and venues around the country, and now he can add best-selling author to his list of credits.
His memoir, “I Am Charlie Wilson,” (Atria Books) released in June, 2015, is a New York Times and Washington Post best seller as well and received an honorary mention for non-fiction from the Black Caucus of American Library Associations, Inc. He recently performed in Charleston, SC at a Get out the Vote Rally and introduced presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The full JITG lineup includes Usher, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Janelle Monae, Brian Culbertson, Michael McDonald, Kool and The Gang, Fred Hammond, The Average White Band, and The Jazz in the Gardens All-Stars featuring Regina Belle, Najee & Alex Bugnon, along with local artists Ronnie VOP, CriStyle Renae, April Raquel and Kouture Band, and LaVie. Returning to the stage as host is comedian and nationally-syndicated radio personality Rickey Smiley.
Last year’s 10th Annual JITG broke box office records with more than 73,000 people attending. Approximately 42,000 festival-goers attended Saturday’s show, the first sold-out day in the history of the event. Fans from all across the nation and abroad enjoyed performances from Maxwell, Erykah Badu, R. Kelly, Toni Braxton, Run D.M.C., and Brian Culbertson, just to name a few.
Comedians and nationally-syndicated radio personalities D.L. Hughley and Rickey Smiley co-hosted the festival. Last year’s JITG event also drew surprise celebrities including actors Bryshere Y. Gray and Jussie Smollett, who star as Hakeem and Jamal, respectively, on the red-hot, Fox television series “Empire.”
For more information about 2016’s 11th annual Jazz in the Gardens, visit www.jazzinthegardens.com,www.facebook.com/jazzinthegardens, twitter.com/jazzgardens and http://instagram.com/jitg11.
