Twenty years ago, when the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild began presenting jazz in what Marty Ashby recalls with a smile as "a burnt-out industrial park," he and Bill Strickland used to drive around town picking people up just to get them inside the legendary North Side venue that since has hosted such masters as Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson and Wynton Marsalis.

	Nancy Wilson will perform in a March 2007 concert at Benedum Center as part of the Craftsmen's Guild 20th anniversary celebration. Click photo for larger image.

Sunday afternoon at 3, Dave Brubeck will kick off the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild's 20th anniversary season with a standing-room only performance.

"People were afraid to go there," Ashby says. "But once they got there, they stayed. And they kept coming back."

Among the longest-running jazz subscription series in the country, MCG Jazz has produced more than 1,200 concerts and 40 recordings, including three Grammy Award-winning albums. The organization plans to mark its anniversary with a yearlong celebration featuring a mix of masters and contemporary artists expanding the boundaries of jazz, from Robert Glasper to The Bad Plus, a piano trio known for covering Black Sabbath and the Pixies.

Nancy Wilson, who won a Grammy for the album she recorded there, will come out of retirement in March 2007 for a Benedum Center performance with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. And Dr. Billy Taylor, the legend whose Jazzmobile Ashby credits with having inspired the MCG, will return to the stage in late September for a four-night stand. The anniversary season is dedicated to Taylor, the first performer to grace the Guild's stage in 1987.

Pianist Billy Taylor, to whom the anniversary celebration is dedicated, will return to MCG for a four-night stand in late September. Click photo for larger image.

Other sure highlights include a night of Brazilian Jazz with Ivan Lins and friends, a tribute to New Orleans produced in partnership with that city's Contemporary Arts Center, and saxophonist Tim Reis presenting the music of the Rolling Stones in a jazz context. Acts like the Bad Plus and Reis are just part of the MCG's renewed commitment to preaching the gospel of jazz beyond the choir.

"The next 20 years is about jazz education," Ashby says, "and building a strong audience base for the future."

Other anniversary plans include a CD sampler, a photo exhibit chronicling the history of the Guild, outreach partnerships with Citiparks, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Jazz Society and The Andy Warhol Museum, and the development of the MCG Young Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Education Program.

Ashby credits the MCG's success to its consistency of programming.

"In Pittsburgh," Ashby says, "word of mouth is the best promotion."