Created as a small community event 15 years ago to draw people to Duck in the shoulder season, the Duck Jazz Festival has grown into a world-class, internationally renowned jazz festival that welcomed more than 7,000 attendees in 2023.
Kay Nickens, public information and events director for the Town of Duck, is using the 15th anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on how the festival has grown.
“The unofficial theme I am going for this year is an artistic vision of ‘Timeless Notes,'” Nickens says. “We’re celebrating the festival and how it’s grown and also celebrating jazz as a genre. This year is definitely an anniversary celebration of looking where the festival started, where we are now and where we are going.”
Jazz is a significant cultural movement in American music history, and it is important for Nickens to reflect the diversity and nuances of jazz in the festival line-up. This year, the festival showcases artists who embody the timeless essence of jazz, bridging the gap between the past, present and future.
What that means for Nickens and staff is bringing forward emerging jazz artists like Jazzmeia Horn. Winner of the 2013 Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition, Horn will teach a vocal clinic for the choir students at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), a first for the festival. First Flight High School Jazz Band students, who open the amphitheater stage at the festival every year, will participate in a masterclass with the Jae Sinnett Quintet.
Nickens says outreach has always been an integral piece of Duck Jazz Festival.
“We are always looking at how we can use the jazz festival to foster these relationships in our community,” she says.
In 2005 the Duck Jazz Festival was just a dream. The Town was just beginning to plan for the Duck Town Park, amphitheater and boardwalk that are now mainstays of the village.
Kathy McCollough-Testa, the Town’s first events and public relations coordinator, remembered people saying it “just couldn’t be done.”
“At that time, there weren’t many large music events here on the Outer Banks, and most restaurants didn’t even have evening music. Duck didn’t even have a stage, electricity or water at the Town Park that year,” McCullough-Testa says.
To honor the festival’s humble beginnings and celebrate this year’s milestone, two artists who performed at earlier festivals, Joe Baione and Lao Tizer, are returning.
Headlining in 2024 is Antonia Bennett, daughter of the late Tony Bennett, who carries on her father’s tradition of singing standards and jazz renditions of contemporary tunes. All the musicians and bands in the lineup offer vastly different approaches grown from the same root.
Thanks to sponsors like PNC Bank, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and more, every event at the Duck Jazz Festival is free and non-ticketed.
This festival would not be possible without the support of almost 100 volunteers and Town staff. It all comes together to create a well-orchestrated jazz festival of the highest order and a direct reflection of the value the Town of Duck places on live music, culture, education, the arts and jazz.
Duck Jazz Festival
Sunday, October 13
11 a.m. The Jae Sinnett Quintet
12:10 p.m. FFHS Jazz Band
1 p.m. Jazzmeia Horn
2:20 p.m. Joe Baione Vibraphone Experience
3:25 p.m. The Lao Tizer Band
4:30 p.m. Empire Strikes Brass
5:25 p.m. Antonia Bennett
About the Author Laura Martier
Laura Martier is a long-time Outer Banks resident who currently divides her time between her home in Southern Shores, where she lives with her partner Dan Martier and dog Deva Om, and Nosara, Costa Rica. After almost 17 years of non-profit management, fundraising and community building, Martier now dedicates herself solely to seeking adventure and expressing herself though music and writing.
