Grammy-nominated artist Patrice Rushen took center stage at Little Gem Saloon for a benefit concert for the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp on Wednesday, July 15.

“I felt compelled to be apart of such an amazing group of musicians that dedicate their time to improving the musical talents of today’s young musicians,” Rushen said in a press release.

The benefit will also include performances from LAJC artistic director Edward “Kidd” Jordan. The concert performance and jam session will feature performances from members of the camp’s faculty and alumni, including Germaine Bazzle, Gregory Agid, Herman Lebeaux, Kent Jordan, Darrell Lavigne, Maynard Chatters, Marlon Jordan, Peter Cho, Brian Quezergue, Roderick Paulin and more.

“It is so moving to have this concert once again this year, especially with all of our faculty and alumni. It really shows that what we started 21 years ago is still growing today,”  Executive Director Jackie Harris said.

The Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, founded in 1995, is a pre-eminent jazz education program that strives to develop the next generation of jazz artists and and to preserve the great American art formin the city in which jazz was born.  The camp has grown from a one-week affair serving 35 children to a three-week intensive program that trains up to 100 young people, ages 10-21, in music and dance.  Instructions in brass,  woodwinds, piano, acoustic and electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, music composition, swing dance and vocal music are offered.

The camp employs the services of leading New Orleans jazz educators and performers, and annually hosts a highly accomplished national jazz musician and swing dance icon as an artists-in-residence. In 2009, Jazz Camp relocated to the campus of Loyola University New Orleans, located in the Garden District of uptown New Orleans. Students experience college life and have the opportunity to study in a state-of-the-art music education facility.