Free Festival Celebrates Pre-War and New Orleans Jazz Headlined by Jim Kweskin & The Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue, Annie & The Fur Trappers
The Bay State Hot Jazz Festival (formerly called the Medford Trad Jazz Festival) will host its third annual event on August 23-24 from 11am – 3pm at the Condon Band Shell in Medford, MA.
Headlining are roots music legend Jim Kweskin and the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue, who were recently interviewed by NPR World Cafe and award-winning St. Louis, MO transplants Annie and the Fur Trappers.
The Bay State Hot Jazz Festival, a roistering, free, daytime event celebrating New Orleans style and pre-war jazz, features eight bands from New England and beyond. Fans young and old are invited to dance, carouse, or relax with some food from Best of Boston winner Revelry N’Awlins Cuisine food truck. Revelry brings authentic New Orleans cuisine to the festival, offering classic N’awlins dishes like po-boys, jambalaya, and red beans and rice. The Medford Brewing Company will also be serving up microbrews.
Jim Kweskin and the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue’s new album Doing Things Right, out now on Jalopy Records, has earned acclaim from No Depression, WBUR, Wide Open Country, Folk Alley, and Vintage Guitar Magazine. MOJO Magazine said, “Jim’s gems… A potpourri of Americana by one of its creators working with killer musicians. Everything from Western Swing, to a New Orleans mambo, to the Great American Songbook, to a reefer anthem.”
Annie and the Fur Trappers, founded a decade ago in St. Louis, MO, won Best Self-Produced Album by the St. Louis Blues Society in 2019. Now based in Boston, MA, they have performed at Big Muddy Blues Festival, The Whitaker Jazz Festival, Cherokee Street Jazz Fest, HONK!TX, Musikfest, Larz Anderson Auto Museum, and the Boston Public Library. They have a new E.P. coming out this October, entitled Mean Blue Spirits, featuring chilling songs from the 1920s and 30s. Leader Annie Linders serves as the festival founder.
The event is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of traditional jazz music in the community, with a mission to bring together jazz enthusiasts, musicians, and local communities to experience the joy and cultural significance of traditional jazz music.
The complete lineup:
Saturday, August, 23, 2025
* 440 expands the gypsy jazz tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with swinging sounds of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, featuring violin and clarinet.
* Rising vocalist/songwriter Rahsaan Cruse Jr., who was first inspired by his grandmother, a member of the esteemed gospel aggregation Shepherd Singers. Among his relatives are original members of the Ink Spots and The Mills Brothers, recipients of a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.
* Inspired by the street bands of the early 20th Century, The Busted Jug Band features kazoos, washboard, mandolin, banjo-ukulele, washtub bass, harmonica, accordion, jug, rhythm bones, National guitar, slide whistle, bicycle horns and rubber chickens. The group plays music of the classic black Jug Bands and String Bands of Memphis and Mississippi, and small Swing Bands and vocal groups of New Orleans and the Urban North.
* The Whoozit/Whatzit All Star Band has some familiar faces and some new ones, but all are leaders of their own bands.
Sunday, August 24, 2025
* The SheBop Swing Orchestra is an all-female swing band based in the greater Boston area, made up of top-tier professional musicians who bring high-energy, authentic swing to every performance. Their repertoire includes classics from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman, alongside more modern tunes.
* Jim Kweskin and the Saturday Night Berlin Hall Revue will perform songs from their newest album, among other timeless classics
* Focusing on repertoire from the 1920’s by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, The Orleans Kids have played every year at the Roaring Twenties Lawn Party since 2016. The band released the album Ipswich Bound in 2022. The band is led by NYC resident and former New Orleanian Alex Owen.
* Annie and the Fur Trappers will headline the day playing a blend of classic trad jazz, blues, and swing music.
The Boston Globe previewed the event in its “can’t-miss things to do in Boston this summer” column. On the festival’s founding in 2023, the Globe said that the festival “showcases the thriving local scene,” continuing, “While most of the tunes in the trad jazz canon were popularized nearly a century ago, the festival has a number of bands that contain millennial members.”
The Bay State Hot Jazz Festival is a program of Labyrinth Choir, a professional mixed vocal ensemble from Massachusetts founded in 2012 by Dr. Anita Kupriss and Dr. Richard Douglas. This elite chorus performs Classical, Contemporary Classical, spirituals, jazz, folk, rock and popular songs in theme-based concerts.
