Portland Jazz Festival Artistic Director Bill Royston Interviewed at AAJ

Through the introduction of a signature theme each year, educational streams and a philosophy that balances international and local artists, the four year-old Portland Jazz Festival is already distinguishing itself amongst the plethora of festivals that take place each year.

Artistic Director Bill Royston is largely responsible for this unique vision, one that views a festival's responsibility as going beyond simply pushing entertainment to its attendees.

This year the signature event at the February festival will be Crystal Silence: The Story of ECM Records, and while performances by Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stanko and Trygve Seim will be strong attractors, so too is daytime programming that includes interviews with the artists and roundtable discussions about various topics including cover design and the myth of the ECM sound.

In his interview with AAJ's Senior Editor John Kelman, Royston explains his vision for the festival, how this year's signature event came about, and much more.

Check out Bill Royston: Bringing ECM to the American Northwest at AAJ today!