2:00 – 3:15 pm La Banda Ramirez Latin Jazz 
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm Les Goodson and Special Guest Lucious Conway 
4:45 pm to 6:00 pm John Cooksey, Melvin Vines and Okäru Lovelace, Antoine Dowdell 

This concert honors Samuel Hargress, Jr. who opened his jazz club, “Paris Blues” on November 15, 1969, and proceeded to book live Jazz seven nights weekly. With no cover charge,  and with a full bar, free buffet, and family hospitality, Paris Blues became widely known as a great jazz  bar in Harlem. Visitors from all over the world were treated to a wide range of blues, jazz and Latin  jazz, and a regular jam night. Sam said that he named Paris Blues “to honor the city, soldiers and music  I grew to love,” as he served in the military in post-war Europe, where his grandfather had fought as a  member of the Harlem Hellfighters. 

Born in Demopolis, Alabama, in 1936, Sam Hargress, Jr. contracted the COVID virus and passed away  on April 10, 2020, one day past his 84th birthday. A civil rights activist throughout his lifetime, he had  received many awards and honors on federal, state, and local levels, and had received personal letters  from many community leaders, including Mayor Bill De Blasio, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Sam’s jazz club had its last night on March 15, 2020; La Banda Ramirez was  the band that night. Paris Blues remains closed at this time.

This event is sponsored by City Artists Corps, WeAct for Environmental Justice  and ZIP Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair.