Festival News

Playboy Jazz Festival, Day 1

Source: All About Jazz
June 16, 2010

Jazz writers like to grouse about how nothing changes at the Playboy Jazz Festival from year to year but the names on the program. Yet one can look at this stasis in a different way, as comfort food in bad times, as a ritual that one can depend upon and hopefully will never go away.

It certainly helped that there was a fairly even level of quality over most of the first day of the fest, with the knockout jazz-funk ...

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SF Stern Grove 2010 Lineup

Source: JamBase
June 16, 2010

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, MACEO PARKER IN THIS YEAR'S LINEUP

They Might Be Giants Magical moments happen regularly at Stern Grove Festival, San Francisco's long-running admission-free outdoor performing arts festival. The 73rd Stern Grove Festival takes place Sundays at 2:00 p.m., June 20-August 22, 2010 (Sigmund Stern Grove, 19th Ave. & Sloat Blvd., San Francisco; sterngrove.org).

“Stern Grove Festival concerts cut across a wide variety of genres. That resonates with people in the Bay Area," explains Judy Tsang, Stern ...

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Playboy Jazz Festival, Day 2

Source: All About Jazz
June 15, 2010

It's dangerous to speculate which program of the two-day Playboy Jazz Festival will be the better one just by glancing at the lineup. Most of the time, you will be wrong.

Someone might be having an off-day, one act doesn't flow comfortably into the next, an overlooked veteran or a newcomer will suddenly get hot, the partying crowd might be distracted or drunk or obsessed with the Lakers game. Case in point: the Saturday concert outpointed Sunday's in musical interest ...

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A Movable Feast of a Festival

Source: Michael Ricci
June 15, 2010

The best way to fight a pervasive assumption is to pretend it doesn't exist. The organizers of the first Undead Jazzfest, which ran Saturday and Sunday night at three clubs in the center of the West Village.

Le Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, and Kenny's Castaways are not necessarily hostile to the idea that jazz audiences like to sit and stay in one place and enjoy a set from beginning to end in silence and then go home. They're just not ...

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Playboy Jazz Festival Has the Bowl Jumpin'

Source: Michael Ricci
June 14, 2010

“Who's got some extra suntan oil, man?" asked singer and unflappably cool customer Kurt Elling from the stage Saturday at the 32nd annual Playboy Jazz Festival.

Marking his first appearance at the festival, the sharply dressed Elling had just finished a spry cover of Joe Jackson's “Steppin' Out," and the temperatures were climbing.

“You look good in the light of day most of you," he added with a smirk.

Though the persistent sun may have clashed with the ever-chatty Elling's ...

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The Smooth Jazz Cruise Becomes Title Sponsor of the 2011 Seabreeze Jazz Festival

Source: Michael Ricci
June 14, 2010

St. Louis, MO: Jazz Cruises, LLC, the St. Louis-based producer of jazz themed cruise vacation experiences, is proud to announce that it has become the title sponsor of the 2011 Seabreeze Jazz Festival under The Smooth Jazz Cruise brand. One of the biggest weekend festivals in contemporary jazz in the U.S., the Panama City, Florida event will be held April 15-17, 2011 under the moniker The Smooth Jazz Cruise presents The Seabreeze Jazz Festival. The Seabreeze Jazz Festival, which has ...

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31 Years... and the Celebration Continues with a Record Number of Free Performances!

Source: Michael Ricci
June 14, 2010

Montreal -- Yes, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, presented by TD in collaboration with Rio Tinto Alcan, celebrated its three-decade existence last year... but with this new fanfare of festivities, you might think the celebrations had never ended! Not only is this 31st edition of the Festival readier than ever to host high-profile guests, new sensations and indisputable legends from the wonderfully varied lands that make up Planet Jazz, but it's also prepared an impressive free outdoor program ...

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Ensemble Timbre Invention.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
June 14, 2010

One of the highlights of Vision Fest, to me is the array of unique larger ensembles that convene each year. These rarely tour or even perform in New York. I've gathered a few examples to give a sense of it but there are many more involving younger people I haven't had time to discover.

6/22

DROM, 85 Avenue A9 pm Celestial Funk BandPatricia Nicholson compositionCooper-Moore percussion & vocalsLewis Barnes trumpet / Mazz Swift violinVernon Reid & Asim Barnes guitar ...

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