(NEWARK, NJ) -- Celebrate 60 years of Jazz in the Garden at The Newark Museum of Art on Saturday, August 9, 2025 with musical performances by Antoinette Montague and Bill Charlap, honoring one of the nation's longest-running jazz festivals. The event runs from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.
5:00pm: Bill Charlap Trio - The legendary Bill Charlap joins us in the garden! Bill Charlap has performed with many leading artists of our time, ranging from Phil Woods and Tony Bennett to Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis. He is known for his interpretations of American popular songs and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin. In 2016, Charlap won a Grammy award for Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern. A producer of concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, Charlap is the Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University. Performing with Bill Charlap will be David Wong, bass, and Kenny Washington, drums.
6:30pm: Antoinette Montague & The Great City of Newark Allstars Experience! They are delighted to feature Blues and Jazz artist, Antoinette Montague, a proud daughter of the great City of Newark. Known as Jazz Woman To The Rescue for her stage persona and her humanitarian work with the foundation of the same name, Antoinette Montague lives her life with jazz in her heart and the blues in her soul. Featured on Vox Humana (Grammy-nominated recording), Montague is a multi-talented entertainer who sings, teaches in numerous residencies, mentors, advocates, and even has a radio show! Her vast knowledge of jazz has secured her place as the 2024 Jazz Journalists Jazz Hero. Performing with Antoinette Montague will be Brandon McCune, piano; Melissa Slocum, bass; Sir Earl Grice, drums; AC Lincoln, tap with special guest Danny Mixon
Tickets are: $40 General Admission | $35 NMOA Members and Students. Tickets are available for purchase online. Your ticket includes one free drink at the bar. There will be food for purchase. This event will take place outside in the Newark Museum of Art Garden (49 Washington Street) in Newark, New Jersey. Chairs are provided.
Grammy Award winning pianist, Bill Charlap has performed with many leading artists of our time, ranging from Phil Woods and Tony Bennett to Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis. He is known for his interpretations of American popular songs and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin. Time magazine wrote, “Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.”
The Bill Charlap Trio was formed in 1997 with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (no relation) and are now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. The trio received two Grammy Award nominations, for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and most recently The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard. In 2016, Charlap won a Grammy award for Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern (Sony). In 2018, Charlap co-produced and recorded the Grammy nominated album, Tony Bennett & Diana Krall, Love Is Here To Stay.
Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como shows and earned a Grammy nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book.” In 2005, Charlap and Stewart released the acclaimed CD, Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note). Charlap is married to renowned jazz pianist Renee Rosnes. The two artists often collaborate in a duo piano setting and have released an album of the Blue Note label, Double Portrait.
Performing with Bill Charlap will be David Wong, bass, and Kenny Washington, drums.
Antoinette Montague is an incredible Blues and Jazz singer and entertainer. She consistently delivers an amazing experience for audiences to enjoy. Her recent Jazz Journalists Association Heroes Award 2024 is a testament to the many assets she possesses. Antoinette Montague is a proud daughter of the Great City of Newark. Known as Jazz Woman To The Rescue for her stage persona and her humanitarian work with the foundation of the same name, Antoinette lives her big life with jazz in her heart and the blues in her soul. She is multi-talented and has been featured on Vox Humana (Grammy-nominated recording). She sings, teaches in numerous residencies, mentors, advocates, and even has a radio show!
She has played the Blue Note, Birdland, The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Litchfield Jazz Fest, Ashdod Jazz Fest in Israel, Russia, S. Korea, and many amazing sold out venues. Her dazzling smile, her way with a kazoo, and her deep understanding and love of the music we call the Blues and Jazz. Antoinette Montague can make an audience cry with “I Loves You Porgy” or bring a crowd to its feet with her joyful rendition of “Let The Good Times Roll.” Her vast knowledge of jazz, as Antoinette often quotes Willie Dixon, “Blues is the root; everything else is the fruit,” has secured her place as the 2024 Jazz Journalists Jazz Hero – Antoinette Montague, Jazz Woman to the Rescue!”M. Butchko
Performing with Antoinette Montague will be Brandon McCune, piano; Melissa Slocum, bass; Sir Earl Grice, drums; AC Lincoln, tap with special guest Danny Mixon.
The Newark Museum of Art (NMOA) was founded with the belief, radical among museums in 1909, that art and learning are for everyone. Today, New Jersey’s largest fine art museum is a vibrant center for the arts and community and places special emphasis on public programming that engages local artists and audiences.
As a leading cultural institution for more than a century, NMOA stewards collections of more than 300,000 artworks and artifacts in science and natural history – the 12th largest museum collection in the nation. Known as the first institution to give sustained support to modernism in America, NMOA continues to pursue new definitions of cultural innovation and is among the 3% of U.S. museums that are nationally accredited.
The Museum’s 3.1 acre campus offers a range of settings to explore, wonder, and create including the National Historic Landmark Ballantine House (1885); the Ward Carriage House (1860); the Old Stone School House (1784); the Dreyfuss Memorial Garden; the Dreyfuss Planetarium (1954), New Jersey’s the first planetarium. NMOA partners with our community to preserve and advocate for the arts, history and culture, and to host special events such as the Newark Black Film Festival, the longest-running Black film festival in the United States, and the Newark Arts Festival, a four-day catalyst for the collaborative power of the arts in the city.
NMOA puts the people of Newark, their creativity and strength at the center of its work, responding to the evolving interests of diverse audiences and critically examining its responsibility to equity.
