If you love jazz but prefer sandy tropical beaches to smoky underground clubs, pack your bags for Anguilla's Tranquility Jazz Festival, celebrating its sixth year and taking place November 6-9 on the island.
Venues like the Cuisinart Hotel, Temenos Golf Club and Johnnos will host performances by jazz greats such as Patti Austin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Arturo Sandoval and Christian Scott by day and by night.
Individual performance tickets range between free and $50, but check here for festival-specific travel packages that include airfare on American Airlines, performance tickets and a range of hotel options.
This Labor Day, jazz lovers won't be gassing up the family SUV or "staycationing" on their couches with a sack of Cheetos and "Kind of Blue" on repeat. They'll be at the Joy of Jazz Festival, a relatively new South African concert series taking place in Johannesburg August 28-30.
The location of the festival makes it a promising spot to host artists from both East and West, from Japanese pianist Keiko Matsui to Spanish-Afro-Cuban outfit Seda Jazz. If you've never heard Xhosa-language songs, the August 30 concert by local talent Camagwini is a must--and a relative steal at R250 (about $32).
If you can arrive and shake off the jet lag by the 28, you can even sit in on a performance workshop hosted by one of the featured musicians!
You can't get your picture taken with a geyser or do a rubbing of moose tracks at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. But this corner of the French Quarter, a part of Louis Armstrong Park, celebrates the legacy of jazz in the US through exhibits and concerts, some even led by specially trained, musically gifted park rangers.
The park was established in 1994 to honor the melting pot of French, Creole and African cultures that combined in the city's dance halls; its visitor center is a former Masonic temple.
The Treme Brass Band, named for a neighborhood known historically for its population of free blacks, holds jazz workshops for kids every Saturday. Other events in the park include trombone soloists and a standing Wednesday ragtime series.
From June 26 through July 6, the 29th Annual Montreal Jazz Festival will take over the city and dish out more than 650 concerts, with shows from noon to midnight every day. This year's festival is dedicated to the memory of jazz giant Oscar Peterson who passed away in late 2007.
The stellar jazz on tap this year includes Leonard Cohen (on his first tour in 15 years!), Woody Allen playing clarinet with his New Orleans Jazz Band, Aretha Franklin, Joseph Arthur, JazzLab and awesome saxophonist Joe Lavano. And of course there'll be tons of others rounding out the fest line-up.
Another great perk? Save your money and attend one of the festival's 450 free outdoor performances--to be announced on the website June 2. For festival-affiliated hotel and package deals (some with tickets thrown in) check here. Or see what place HotelChatter is hitting up.Ayez l'amusement!
Cold, rainy fall days make for the best culture travel. So over the next few weeks we're mapping the upcoming shows to see.
Take your jazz with a side of fog this year at the 25th Anniversary San Francisco Jazz Festival, which runs October 17 through November 30. Yes, even the Bay Area can have the blues, but with artists like Cuban swingster Issac Delgado and sitar master Ravi Shankar, there's way more to it than just the 12-bar.
Pick up your tickets now for sure-to-sell-out acts like Dr. John's night of zydeco and the genre-crossing Kronos Quartet. Since the festival runs for weeks, it's happening at venues all over the city. Places like the Herbst Theatre and the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre are worth seeing in their own right--all the better if top-notch jazz is part of the program.
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by sedona
