Music City Jazz, Blues and Heritage Festival at Riverfront Park

Saxophonist Boney James is among the popular and proficient performers in the smooth jazz world. His fluid, melody-enhancing solos and collaborations with urban music and neo-soul stars like Anthony Hamilton, Angie Stone, Faith Evans and Dwele have not only won him Grammy and NAACP Image Award nominations, but led to a series of chart-topping CDs (among them the recent Send One Your Love). At the two-day Music City Jazz & Blues Heritage Festival, now in its seventh year, he tops a bill that includes veteran Memphis funk ensemble Con Funk Shun; Phil Perry, former member of the doo-wop/soul ensemble the Montclairs; Nashville’s own swinging saxophonist Joe Johnson and standards/jazz vocalist Diane Marino; R&B trio After7 featuring Kevon Edmonds; and indefatigable funketeers Zapp, who helped make electro-funk a major sound on the soul charts in the ‘70s and ‘80s with the late Roger Troutman. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 for a weekend pass (both days), and kids 12 and under are free.
Sat., Sept. 5, 2 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 6, 2 p.m., 2009