And since 1985, Rebecca Parris has come north from the Boston area each year to sing at Marblehead Summer Jazz.

NPR: Rebecca Parris at Marblehead Summer Jazz

Originally recorded July 7, 2007 at Marblehead Summer Jazz.

NPR: Rebecca Parris at Marblehead Summer Jazz

" Jazz on a Summer's Day " (New Yorker Video ): Bert Stern's remarkable evocation of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, plus a behind-the-scenes documentary of the celebrated still photographer at work on his only motion picture.

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Relax in the splendid garden, savour dinner in the much-lauded restaurant, attend jazz sessions (in summer).

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Downtown, wander over to the Place des Festivals, a large public space dedicated to the city's continuous schedule of urban entertainment, including the annual jazz festival that takes place each summer at the end of June or beginning of July.

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Pause for a swim at the glorious outdoor Lasker Pool (between 108th and 109th Streets), then catch one of the myriad free concerts - from Philharmonic to children's jazz to dub reggae - that grace the summer calendar.

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David Romanelli, a New York-based yoga instructor, led a class this summer in Colorado that was accompanied, live, by the jazz-fusion musician Stanley Jordan.

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In 1996, he became the first official artist for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta and - a year later - the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

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But when he rigged the truck's bell to sound more like a jazz cymbal, he wound up making more money that summer than he'd made teaching for nine months.

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