The Cream of the Jazz Crop:  
The Attucks Jazz Club 2024-2025 Season!    
Presented by Virginia Arts Festival and City of Norfolk’s SevenVenues Featuring Top Jazz Artists in an Intimate Club Setting  
atop Norfolk’s Historic Attucks Theatre Tickets just $25  

It’s the region’s sweet spot for jazz: in the historic Attucks Theatre’s top floor ballroom, the Attucks Jazz Club is a neon-lit, intimate space where every seat is close to the music and the artist roster reads like a who’s who of the art form. With open table seating and the welcoming Club bar, the Attucks Jazz Club embodies the way jazz was meant to be heard.  

Curated by one of the region’s jazz giants, pianist and educator John Toomey, the Attucks Jazz Club series attracts some of the hottest players in the jazz world; in this season alone, Club-goers will hear a Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member, a Hampton native who’s been a star of the New York jazz scene for decades, singers who have collaborated with the greats, and more. Toomey’s connections are deep; his own resume boasts stints with jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson as well as vocalists Mark Murphy and Rene Marie. A favorite of local jazz fans, Toomey is a dazzlingly gifted pianist, and his namesake trio performs with the featured guest artist in each Attucks Jazz Club show. (When he’s not performing, Toomey teaches Jazz History and Jazz Improvisation at Old Dominion University, where he also directs the Jazz Combo and Jazz Choir.) Regular players in the trio include bassist Jimmy Masters, who has enlivened the region’s jazz scene for more than three decades, and drummer Tony Martucci out of Washington D.C. 

All performances begin at 7:30 pm. The Attucks Theatre is located at 1010 Church St., Norfolk. For more information and to buy tickets visit www.vafest.org.  

Tickets for Attucks Jazz Club are just $25, the more you buy the more you save, buy three performance and save 10%, buy four or more and save 20%.  Tickets may be purchased online at www.vafest.org, by phone at 757-282-2822 or by visiting the Virginia Arts Festival box office located at 440 Bank Street in Norfolk between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday; also available at Ticketmaster.com. 

The 2024-2025 Attucks Jazz Club line-up includes: 

Kenny Washington, vocals 
Saturday, September 28, 7:30pm 
“Capped by a sassy whistle and sassier scat…Washington’s easygoing voice is a tutorial in confidence. Washington knows how to respect tradition and refresh it.” Downbeat 
He’s one of Wynton Marsalis’s favorite singers—need we say more? Kenny Washington scats and swings, always making you feel like you’re hearing a song for the first time. A regular with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a hit at Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club, Washington thrills audiences and leaves them wanting more. 

Rex Richardson, trumpet 
Saturday, October 26, 7:30pm 
“One of the world’s most engaging and astonishingly versatile trumpeters.” – Style Weekly 
If you’re looking for world-class talent, here’s a prime example from just up the road: Richmond-based trumpeter Rex Richardson has headlined international brass bands and festivals on five continents. He has collaborated with countless legendary artists and ensembles including Ray Charles, Benny Carter, Kurt Elling, Aretha Franklin and more. Catch this towering talent in a must-hear set at the Attucks Jazz Club! 

Steve Nelson, vibraphone 
Saturday, November 16, 7:30pm 
“Harmonically sumptuous… It was masterly, it was playful, and it swung.” – The New York Times 
The vibist of choice for some of jazz’s most iconic artists, Steve Nelson is a name that has become associated with the pinnacle of the art form. With a resume that includes stints with Dave Holland’s acclaimed quintet, the George Shearing Quintet, Mulgrew Miller and many more, Nelson is known and loved for his improvisations—flights of pure artistry and imagination that leave the listener breathless.  

Stephanie Nakasian, vocals 
Saturday, January 18, 7:30pm
“Vocal virtuosity…with a broad range of material that showed her assurance on easygoing ballads, soft, Brazilian scat singing, and punchy pep songs.” – The New York Times  
With a well-seasoned voice and a gift for finding the heart of a song, Stephanie Nakasian brings a lot more to a performance than just a set of albeit perfect pipes. Her knowledge of music generally and jazz specifically spices up a set with backstage stories that enliven and endear, including tales from her own career, from her early days scatting with Jon Hendricks to gigs up and down the club circuit and beyond.  

Steve Wilson, saxophone 
Saturday, February 22, 7:30pm 
“One of the finest saxophonists in the business.” – NPR 
Sought-after sideman in studio and onstage, as well as a bandleader in his own right, Steve Wilson has had a storied career; you can hear his distinctive sound on more than 100 recordings with such artists as Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves, Joe Henderson, and many more. A Hampton, Virginia native, Wilson studied at VCU before hitting the road—but once he hit New York the city’s jazz scene claimed him as one of their own. Catch this home-grown giant of jazz at the Attucks!

Walter Blanding, saxophone 
Saturday, March 22, 7:30pm 
“Some sounds stop you dead in your tracks…Blanding’s tenor saxophone is certainly one of those: huge, warm and woody, something hewn straight from nature.” – Sydney Morning Herald 
A member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since the 1990s, Walter Blanding carves out a saxophone sound like no other. Born into a musical family (both parents played in the house band at New York’s Village Gate jazz club), he started playing professionally at age 16—and it was around that age that the youngster was first heard by Wynton Marsalis, who says, simply, “I always loved him and his playing. He plays with deep blues feeling, harmonic sophistication and directness.”