3rd Annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration Featuring The Salty Dogs

The world-renowned Salty Dogs jazz band will bring their traditional jazz sound to Michiana with a concert at The Wood Fire Italian Trattoria in Dowagiac in memory of the late Chicago jazz saxophonist, Franz Jackson. A favorite of jazz audiences throughout the country and around the world, the Salty Dogs have performed at some of the biggest jazz festivals and will be a familiar name to Michiana jazz lovers as they have played the Elkhart Jazz Festival for several years. The 3rd Annual Franz Jackson Jazz Celebration honors Jackson, a former Dowagiac resident, for his lifelong contribution to the music world. Franz Jackson, who passed away at the age of 95 in May, 2008, started his professional career at the age of 16 with boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons and played with virtually every renowned jazz great including Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Noone, Earl Hines, Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne.