HAMLET — The Sandhills and Pee Dee regions’ musical history and future will be celebrated Saturday with the 17th annual John Coltrane Music Edu-tainment Festival.
The mission of the event, according to founder Gerard Morrison, is “to merge artistic performance with education and social engagement, fostering networking and cultivating connections across generations, genres, and geographies.”
The festival was founded to honor the “artistic legacy and community spirit” of the Hamlet-born jazz musician and takes place each year just a few miles south of town.
“In honoring Coltrane, we not only celebrate musical excellence, but also the power of creative arts to uplift, teach, inspire, and unite communities — especially in our often-overlooked rural areas,” Morrison said.
But it’s not all about jazz.
The festival welcomes musicians from all genres — including blues, bluegrass, country, funk, gospel, hip hop, rap and rock — as well as participants from other artsy areas like authors, artists, dancers and poets.
This year’s event will feature a performance by the Rockingham Middle School band during the first hour, Morrison said.
Morrison added that there are few performer and vendor spots left available.
Admission is $10, or $8 for senior citizens, students, veterans and first responders with ID. Group rates are also available.
For more information, contact Morrison at 347-286-8742.
ABOUT COLTRANE
Coltrane was born Sept. 23, 1926 at 200 Hamlet Ave. to John and Alice Blair Coltrane, but grew up in High Point. He joined a community band at the age of 12 and started a school band at William Penn High School, where he graduated at 16 before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Coltrane served a short stint in the U.S. Navy and went on to meet and make music with other jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis.
Gillespie, nearly nine years older than Coltrane, was born in nearby Cheraw, South Carolina, and attended the Laurinburg Institute on a music scholarship before also moving to Philadelphia.
Coltrane overcame alcohol and heroin addiction and was named “Jazzman of the Year” by Down Beat magazine in 1965. Two years later, he died due to complications from liver cancer.
In 2009, Coltrane was inducted into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame. Other local inductees include bluesman Blind Boy Fuller (born in Wadesboro, raised in Rockingham) and American Idol alum Bucky Covington.
In 2020, Coltrane was honored with a mural in Hamlet by artist Scott Nurkin. It was the first in a series by Nurkin to recognize North Carolina musicians.
