Ron Holloway performs at the 2005 Potomac Jazz and Seafood Festival – submitted photo

From humble beginnings in 1999, the Potomac Jazz and Seafood Festival, presented by Friends of St. Clement’s Island and Piney Point Museums, has come a long way. It began as a Potomac Jazz Concert, with a single, though impressive artist, Charlie Byrd, a famous jazz guitarist from Virginia. “Byrd was very instrumental in bringing bossa nova (a style of Brazilian music), to the U.S.,” Kim Cullins, who has organized the festival from its inception, said of their inaugural performer.

The following year the concert had already expanded into a full-blown event rather than a single concert. “We began lining up three artists and multiple vendors,” Cullins told The Bay Net.

For the 7th annual festival Vocalist Sandra Y. Johnson, a soulful Jazz singer from Washington, will open the performances at 4p.m., followed by Walter Bell, a flute virtuoso from California at 6 p.m., and Gregg Karukas, a jazz artist who grew up in Prince Georges County, will be flying in from Los Angeles to take the stage for the final concert at 8 p.m..

In addition to the music, the festival will offer a wine tasting of three wines from the St. Clement Vineyard, which was named for the Island. The winery, located in St. Helena, Nappa Valley, was purchased by William Casey, a doctor who moved from Maryland to the West Coast. He had previously tried to start a vineyard in Maryland with his brother but the endeavor failed. When he purchased the Nappa Valley vineyard he named it after St. Clement’s Island, a place his mother had traced their family roots to. On Saturday wines from the estate will be enjoyed by visitors at the very place Casey honored with their naming over thirty years ago.

And the seafood? This year vendors will include Lenny’s Restaurant, offering crab cakes, steamed and fried shrimp, and fish and chips, among other things, Bear Creek Barbeque, which will serve dishes such as hickory spiced rockfish, and Blue Wind Gourmet, with a lump crab meat over field greens. In addition Bells of St. Mary’s will provide frozen delicacies, including dipped ice-cream, and Mountain Mudd Espresso will serve up hot and ice coffee beverages.

Last year 800 people attended the Jazz and Seafood Festival, and tickets will be limited to 800 again this year. They are still available for sale on the website and by phone by calling St. Clement’s Island – Potomac River Museum at 301-769-2222.

So, pack up your favorite chair or blanket and head to the riverside at St. Clement’s Island to enjoy the best of Southern Maryland seafood, and Jazz that’s guaranteed to be delivered con fuoco. Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the gate and include a complementary water taxi ride of the historic island, the birthplace of Maryland.