Articles by Sandy Ingham
Exit Zero International Jazz Festival: Cape May, NJ, November 9-11, 2012
by Sandy Ingham
Exit Zero International Jazz FestivalCape May, NJNovember 9-11, 2012After the beating the Northeast took from Hurricane Sandy and a snowy nor'easter, people were ready for something positive, and for some it came in the form of the first Exit Zero International Jazz Festival in Cape May, New Jersey.Pianist Ramsey Lewis, bassist Christian McBride, singer Mark Murphy, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and dozens of other musicians were ready to party, and so were the nearly 1,000 people ...
read more16th Litchfield Jazz Festival: Kent, CT, August 5-7, 2011
by Sandy Ingham
Litchfield Jazz Festival Kent, CT August 5-7, 2011 “I like to save the best for last," saxophonist Jimmy Heath told the crowd near the end of his big band's grand finale set at the Litchfield Jazz Festival on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011. It was a successful strategy, not only for Heath's great band, but also for the festival itself, which programmed two full days of music that escalated from good to better to best. Another ...
read moreNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Days 4-7: May 5-8, 2011
by Sandy Ingham
Days 1-3 | Days 4-7 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival New Orleans, LA April 27-May 6, 2011 Day 4: Thursday May 5, 2011 Vibraphonist Stefon Harris and Blackout was the featured act in the WWOZ Jazz Tent, but Christian Scott stole the show. Scott--the young New Orleans-born trumpeter now building a national reputation from his Harlem, NY base--is a hard-bopper, but kicked back on a gorgeous ballad, “Isadora." Then he ...
read moreNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2011
by Sandy Ingham
Days 1-3 | Days 4-7 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival New Orleans, LA April 27-May 6, 2011 Day 1: April 29, 2011The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival turned 42 this year. I've been to 25, and the thrill of anticipation entering the fairgrounds and crossing to the WWOZ Jazz Tent never grows old. And Day One of 2011 on April 29 was all that could be hoped for and ...
read moreCape May Jazz Festival, April 8-10, 2011
by Sandy Ingham
Cape May Jazz Festival Cape May, NJ April 8-10, 2011 Poncho Sanchez never fails to ignite his audience, and his Latin jazz band came out blazing as the Saturday night opening act/headliner at the semiannual Cape May (N.J.) Jazz Festival, April 8-10. Sanchez, the hammer-handed conga player and leather-lunged lead singer for the eight-piece band, had a crackerjack three-horn front line as always, a pianist who doubled on electrifying organ, and a couple fellow percussionists blending ...
read moreGreat vibes in Cape May N.J.
by Sandy Ingham
Cape May Jazz FestivalCape May, NJNovember 12-14, 2010 Just a few bars into his first tune, “All Blues," I knew Joe Baione would make my day. Or night, as it were.Vibraphonist Baione's quartet wasn't a headliner at the 34th semiannual Cape May Jazz Festival. Those honors belonged to Les McCann with Javon Jackson, to the Yellowjackets, to Terell Stafford and Tim Warfield, to Ralph Peterson. Their sets had been enjoyable. But this listener, at ...
read moreSatchmo Summerfest 2010: A blowout far better than BP's
by Sandy Ingham
Satchmo SummerfestLouisiana State Museum's Old U.S. Mint.New Orleans, LAAugust 5-8, 2010 “Happy birthday, Pops!"Kermit Ruffins shouted to a couple of thousand revelers as the 10th annual Satchmo Summerfest neared its joyous conclusion. Then he tilted his trumpet toward the blue sky and played a chorus of the birthday song while the crowd wished Louis Armstrong a happy 109th. Then he played it again, jauntily, giving it that old jazz feeling, before turning ...
read moreCape May Jazz Festival's 33rd Edition
by Sandy Ingham
Cape May Jazz FestivalCape May, NJApril 16-18, 2010If there's a formula for putting on a successful jazz festival, both artistically and box- office-wise, Cape May's got it.
Need some straight-ahead hard bop: Check: How about Tim Warfield and his quintet's tribute to organist Shirley Scott? Some fusion-ey jazz/pop for those less drawn to more challenging stuff? Check: Spyro Gyra.
Gotta have some blues: Shemekia Copeland will do just fine. And a dose of ...
read moreChicago Jazz Festival 2009
by Sandy Ingham
Chicago Jazz Festival 2009Chicago, IllinoisSeptember 4-6, 2009
Chicago can't lay claim to being the jazz capital of the world, nor was it the birthplace of jazz (though as the place where Louis Armstrong and other seminal New Orleans artists came after New Orleans, and as the birthplace of Benny Goodman 100 years ago, it can be considered the second chapter in the story of the music's evolution).
What Chicago does boast is the biggest free ...
read more9th Annual Satchmo Summerfest Heats Up New Orleans
by Sandy Ingham
Ninth Annual Satchmo SummerFestNew Orleans, LouisianaJuly 30-August 2, 2009
Sauntering down Frenchmen Street in New Orleans late on the night of July 31, I thought: I am indisputably in the right place, at the right time, mingling with more happy people per square foot than could be found anywhere else in the world.
The occasion was the annual Satchmo Summerfest Club Strut, one of the greatest parties in this great party town. If you think ...
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