Vision Festival, Brooklyn NY
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2012 and my first music festival I attended was Vision Festival. What a freakin blessing! Really amazing music from amazingly people. I really hate trying to describe the music sometimes because these labels don't quite do justice to explain it. It has been described as free jazz, experimental, improvised music...whatever. I don't know the best way to describe it but I was so glad to attend. If you are adventurous and seek adventure in your music, its possible the Vision Festival could be of interest to you. www.artsforarts.org has more details.
Chicago Jazz Festival
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2010 has been interesting for me. I somehow wound up going to Chicago, Illinois to attend this jazz festival. 4 days of high quality music....and the best part is that is was FREE!! I read an article in a local jazz newsletter discussing the budget cuts for the festival and the need to cut back the jazz festival from a 3 day event down to only 2 days on Labor Day weekend. Somehow, they managed to get real creative and somehow extend the festival to make it 4 days long! I wondered how they could do that but eventually came to understand that there were less international acts and more local Chicago artists featured in this years fest. I have much respect for the local artists of any city or town but what makes a festival exciting is having talent from all over the world play. You know, having a chance to see artists that you may not otherwise find yourself able to see. When I saw the lineup for this festival I almost booked my flight to Chicago on the spot! As I type this out, I am still in Chicago. The festival ended yesterday and I am trying to recover from all that I experienced.
Check here for the lineup:
http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/event_landing/special_events/mose/chicago_jazz_festival.html
It was a FANTASTIC festival! More details to come....
Check here for the lineup:
http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/event_landing/special_events/mose/chicago_jazz_festival.html
It was a FANTASTIC festival! More details to come....
Rochester International Jazz Festival
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I'm still a youngin' to all these great jazz festivals but from what I've read, this is one of the best festivals in the country. Or I should say this is one of the more diverse and the artists they selected to play the festival have been up my alley. I've gone to this festival two years in a row and haven't been disappointed. One thing I love about this festival is that they have a series called, Made in the UK, which features artists from the UK. Seriously, some great artists! People that I probably would not have heard of otherwise. They also feature a Nordic Jazz series that is fantabulous! Some of the artists featured tend not to be simply straight- ahead jazz. I'm not the best person to ask about genres and classifications but most of what I heard from the Scandinavian musicians were original tunes. What stood out to me the most were those musicians who used a laptop and their instruments to create some music that could not be easily duplicated. I remember hearing Norweigan trumpet player, Nils Peter Molvaer play. He played these long tunes that were lost on many audience members who lacked patience. He tells these amazing stories using no words, only music. He would set the scene for you, giving great detail. With seamless transitions I found myself deeply enthralled in his story. If you stuck around til the climax, you felt handsomely rewarded! The whole story really comes together at the end. It was quite an experience to be taken on a journey through music in the way Molvaer plays. Another Norweigan trumpet player, Arve Heinriksen told amazingly intricate stories and he also sang. One audience member said Henriksen has the voice of an angel. I don't recall ever having heard angels sing before but I would imagine one that might sound something like Henriksen.
It is possible that some of this music can be "too deep" for the average listener. Thats fine. Rochester Jazz Festival has such a wide variety of music. It may be called a jazz festival but it really is not limited to jazz. They have venues that offer blues, funk, gospel, world music too. Often the lines have become so blurred with the music that if you focus solely on labels and categories you really can miss something spectacular. The point is there is music for everyone at Rochester, New York's annual festival. Going on their 10th year, this festival normally takes place around early to mid June. If you are in the area during the festival please don't miss it!
It is possible that some of this music can be "too deep" for the average listener. Thats fine. Rochester Jazz Festival has such a wide variety of music. It may be called a jazz festival but it really is not limited to jazz. They have venues that offer blues, funk, gospel, world music too. Often the lines have become so blurred with the music that if you focus solely on labels and categories you really can miss something spectacular. The point is there is music for everyone at Rochester, New York's annual festival. Going on their 10th year, this festival normally takes place around early to mid June. If you are in the area during the festival please don't miss it!
Czech Republic
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I'm not going to explain how I wound up in Brno, Czech Republic but I will say that they have a pretty great jazz festival! The festival is around 10 days long with musicians from all over the world. It takes place in Brno. Brno is a city about two hours East of Prague. When I went to Brno, I really had no idea what I was in for. I was very unfamiliar with musicians from Central and Eastern Europe. I can say that when I left Czech Republic I had learned a lot. I learned about Auguścik – Karnas Sextet from Poland. Radovan Tariska and his group, Alex Sipiagin and plenty others. I know this isn't quite festival related but its important to know that I paid the equivalent of $1 USD for a glass of wine! The beer was pretty inexpensive too! See its the little things that mean so much! :)
Tampere, Finland
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What do I know about Tampere, Finland? Well, I know that I can google it and find lots of info on it. What was essential for me was finding out that they have an event called Tampere Jazz Happening and it takes place at the end of October. This festival is short but sweet! Some of the people I had the pleasure of seeing was Angles Sextet led by Martin Kuchens of Sweden. Holy hell! I was amazed at the energy of this group and their playing!! In no way am I accusing him of anything but he was so filled with energy that he kind of darted around so enthralled in the music that he look like he might have been on large amounts of speed and turkish coffee. The energy was quite contagious, though not matching his own, I was quite captivated by this band. There were lots of great acts but two of my favorite were Dave Douglas Quintet with Uri Caine on keys. My first time seeing Uri Caine live. That man is a super badass! Portico Quartet was really great too. Oh and Bjorkenheim, Parker and Drake was fabulous too! While the musicians came from all over the world, the Finnish musicians really represented!! You had the group Black Motor featuring Verneri Pohjola on trumpet. And I cannot say enough about the skills of the drummer Mika Kallio. He was on fire!!!! I left Tampere feeling so proud to have witnessed the magic on those stages.