Ten years of fruitful music

Ten years of fruitful music   

Sheila E., Run DMC, Jackson and Erinohso

By Starla Vaughns Cherin

Coming up to the gate of the 10th Annual Jazz in the Gardens (JIG) Music Festival there were all manner of Mercedes S430, Escalade Ext, Lexus Sport and Infiniti M35 with auto tags hailing from Pure, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Georgia and South Florida, all inching into the massively packed festival grounds for a musical experience.

Coming up to the gate of the 10th Annual Jazz in the Gardens (JIG) Music Festival there were all manner of Mercedes S430, Escalade Ext, Lexus Sport and Infiniti M35 with auto tags hailing from Pure, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Georgia and South Florida, all inching into the massively packed festival grounds for a musical experience.

Ten years of fruitful music building brings the event to a mile stone reaching greater heights in music and garnering fans from across the nation. This year’s two day line-up included young blood Karina Iglesias, sexy Maxwell, John Erinosho, Brian Culbertson, Toni Braxton, running with Run DMC, Valerie Tyson, The Men of Soul, Jeffrey Osborne, Peabo Bryson, Freddie Jackson and Howard Hewitt, multi instrumentalist Sheila E, the bold R. Kelly and always on time Erykah Badu, a favorite of JIG fans.

Punctuated by the comedy of co-host Rickey Smiley and D.L. Hughley, with appearances by J. Anthony Brown, the festival was an Instagram hit. Hughley tells of going to the hospital and guarding his phone in the process. “My wife said I’ll keep your phone while you’re in the hospital. I told her no that’s alright. I went to the hospital with my phone lying on my chest. You are not going to catch me! My colon might be clean but my call history is not!”

Energetic showman Jeffrey Osborne lifted the crowd, who sang back to him as he sang, danced, jumped and sweated his love on stage. “Back In Love Again”, The Woo Woo Woo song had everyone waving cell phones in the air lighting up the night. “My favorite song is Love Ballad. I never get tired of singing it,” Osborne said.

About JIG at Sun Life Stadium, Osborne said, “This is a setting you don’t get all the time, singing before thousands of Black people in a venue like this. It is wonderful and inspiring.”

Freddie Jackson talked about his new cook book Tasty Love. I lost 107 pounds,” said Jackson. “I dieted for 12 years and have been off a diet for three years eating the things that are featured in the cook book. I’m living the lifestyle and now I’m eating to live. Check it out.”

Poet Rebecca Butterfly Vaughns attends JIG every year. “There is a sense of beauty in seeing someone’s vision like Jazz in the Gardens become a reality to later blossom into something beyond their wildest expectations.”