Here’s all you need to know about the 2012 D.C. Jazz Festival, which runs from June 1-10 at dozens of venues around the city.

Today marks the start of the 2010 D.C. Jazz Festival, hands down the biggest annual jazz event in our nation’s capital. For five years, it was called the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, in celebration of the jazz icon who was born here in the District. The name was changed for this sixth iteration for multiple reasons. “When I first came up with the Idea, Duke Ellington made so much sense,” said Charlie Fishman, the…

At the close of last night’s concert at the 2007 Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, Executive Producer Charlie Fishman said his friend and mentor, the great Dizzy Gillespie (pictured), who was the focus of this year’s proceedings, chose to name his last big band the United Nation (in the singular) Jazz Orchestra to show the oneness of humanity. Fishman went on to say that Dizzy often told his colleagues that human beings all share two characteristics:…

FRIDAY: >> The city’s free concert series follows MC Hammer with a rare appearance by salsa legend Willie Colon, 7-9 p.m. at Woodrow Wilson Center. >> President Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his book, Broken Government, which examines “the institutional damage he believes the Republican Party has inflicted on the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government during the Bush administration.” 7 p.m. He’ll also be…

The 2007 edition of The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, D.C.’s largest music festival, got off to a glowing start with last night’s opening gala, held at the Inter-American Development Bank. The show was a bit delayed due to some technical difficulties with the piano, but the organizers wisely chose to hold the curtain in order to fix the problem because, as festival executive producer Charlie Fishman told the audience, “If the musicians be happy, then…

Though it is not yet recognized as such by the jazz audience at large, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival’s organizers have achieved their goals of mounting a world class festival by assembling a roster of top flight talent, which includes Latin jazz legend and festival artistic adviser Paquito D’Rivera (pictured). These jazz greats will grace stages across the city over the course of the nine day festival, which begins on September 9 with a Taiko…