Festival News

Vancouver Jazz Fest: Sonny Rollins' Life-Long Search for Excellence

Source: All About Jazz
June 26, 2009

VANCOUVER - Saxophonist Sonny Rollins doesn’t take the Orpheum stage until 8 p.m. Monday, but he’s told the venue that he needs the dressing room by mid-afternoon. That’s because he wants to practise for three hours before he takes the stage. And, if things go the way they did when he appeared here two years ago, he’ll practise for another hour after the concert. At 78, the man many consider the greatest living tenor saxophonist still feels he has room ...

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Jazz Fest All-Star Lineup Includes Tribute to 'Kind of Blue'

Source: All About Jazz
June 26, 2009

"In the church of jazz, the album 'Kind of Blue' is one of the holy relics," writes Ashley Kahn in “Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece" (DaCapo Press, 2000), one of two books written exclusively about the celebrated album. It is hailed as the best-selling jazz album of all-time and ranked 12th on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list published in 2003. Music icon Herbie Hancock, who played some of that music ...

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Stanford Jazz Festival Returns for Its 38th Year

Source: All About Jazz
June 26, 2009

At the age of 84, James Moody may be the oldest musician performing at the 38th annual Stanford Jazz Festival, which he opens on Friday at Dinkelspiel Auditorium. But there's not a player on the festival's program with a more youthful spirit. In a career stretching back to the mid-1940s, when he first gained attention in Dizzy Gillespie's ridiculously talented bebop orchestra (his bandmates included Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke and Ray Brown), Moody has distinguished himself as a ...

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Is Jazz Dead?: Stretching the Festival Definition of Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
June 26, 2009

With Canadian summer jazz festivals featuring everything from the gospel sounds of The Sojourners and straight-ahead jazz saxophonist David Sanborn to Nigerian superstar King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, the definition of jazz has become fluid. Okay, so here's another question: What is jazz? And another: Is jazz a meaningless term? Or even: Is jazz dead? If ever there was a word loaded with multiple meanings, it's the word jazz. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines it ...

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Info-Festival - Thursday, June 25, 2009

Source: Michael Ricci
June 26, 2009

Official opening in 4 days! Only five days remain before the opening of the 30th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, which will be held from Tuesday, June 30 to Sunday, July 12, 2009! The press room-the heart of the Festival New this year, the Festival press room is located in the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan, 305 Ste. Catherine St. West. Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 26, from 10 a.m. to ...

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Reggae Rising Artist Additions

Source: JamBase
June 26, 2009

Reggae Rising Music Festival Announces Lineup By Day Plus New Additions

Toots and the Maytals Reggae Rising Music Festival is proud to announce our latest lineup additions (Toots and the Maytals, Sister Carol, Rebelution and DeMarco) plus artist lineup by day, the all new late night dancehall “Club Umoja" with special appearances by Million Stylez, Norrisman, Messenjah Selah and more.

Reggae Rising Music Festival will take place on July 31 - August 2 at the Dimmick Ranch and French's Camp, ...

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Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, September 22-26, 2009

Source: All About Jazz
June 25, 2009

Now in its ninth year, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival—Boston's largest and most popular outdoor festival—has expanded to five days and seven stages at locations in Boston and Cambridge, and has named world-renowned drummer and Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington its new artistic director. From September 22 to 26, superstars and local artists will come together in free and ticketed offerings that have drawn upwards of 70,000 people of all ages from every neighborhood in Boston and all over New ...

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Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival Wraps up Spectacular Record-Setting 8th Edition

Source: Dalmath Associates Inc.
June 24, 2009

Mark Your Calendars for the Ninth Edition, June 11-19, 2010 Rochester, NY--The 8th Annual Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival presented by M&T Bank wrapped up a spectacular nine days of music presented by some of the world’s greatest artists. Attendance this year was 133,000 topping last’s year’s record of 125,000 and marking the seventh straight year of attendance growth. Smokey Robinson, Dave Brubeck. Michael McDonald, Taj Mahal, Susan Tedeschi, Jake Shimabukuro, Carolyn Wonderland, and SMV The Thunder Tour with Stanley ...

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