Official site of the Jazz Port Townsend jazz festival, as well as other jazz education and performance programs at Centrum, the nonprofit center for the arts at Fort Worden State Park, in Port Townsend, Washington.
A quick note about ticket availability for Jazz Port Townsend. Individual tickets are still available for Friday and Saturday mainstage and club shows. Additionally:
JAZZ PORT TOWNSEND TICKETS NOTE:
All Jazz discount packages are SOLD OUT.
Online and phone sales for FRIDAY and SATURDAY Jazz Port Townsend shows will continue until until Friday morning at 7am. After that, all remaining tickets will be sold at the McCurdy Pavilion Box Office, which will open for sales 90 minutes before each show. (Jazz in the Clubs tickets may also be purchased at each club door during the Festival.) If Saturday afternoon's reserved seating sells out, we will offer lawn seating at $10/person.
Artistic Director John Clayton takes a few minutes out of the workshop week to welcome you to Jazz Port Townsend 2009. Highlights of the video: a) John compares Port Townsend's Festival club scene to New York's 52nd Street in 1940s and 1950s; b) John talks about some of the new voices featured this year, and welcomes familiar faces; c) John talks about the crumbling borders in jazz.
Watch the whole thing!
Thursday night club shows are sold out, and packages are also sold out. Individual tickets to everything else is still available, however. Call our fair-trade ticket partners at Brown Paper Tickets 24/7 at 800-838-3006, or purchase tickets online.
Hugo Kugiya, of the Seattle Times, interviewed pianist Benny Green in advance of Green's Oscar Peterson tribute set on Saturday, July 25. Green told Kugiya, that Saturday's performance carries special meaning for him:
"I didn't want to jump on any opportunistic bandwagon in the aftermath
of his passing (in 2007)," said Green. "There were many situations that I turned
down, that paid well, much to my manager's frustration ... out of
respect for Oscar as a friend as well as an artist."
...It was bassist John Clayton, the festival's artistic director, who
persuaded Green, whom he has known for 16 years, to finally pay tribute
to Peterson's artistic legacy.
Alvester Garnett (drums), Chuck Deardorf (bass), and Randy Porter (piano) lead a 2009 Jazz Port Townsend workshop session on African and Latin rhythms.
At the 2:00 minute mark, they break into music. Check it out.
To purchase tickets to the public performance component of Jazz Port Townsend, visit our performance page - we look forward to seeing you at the shows.
Are you coming to Jazz Port Townsend next week? If so, let the world know what's happening.
If you use Twitter, use the following hashtag in your posts: #jazzpt09. You can follow everyone's tweets using this tag by visiting the Twitter search page.
If you use Flickr to host and share your photos, tag your posts "jazzporttownsend09" and we'll build a group slideshow featuring everyone's photos.
She was one of nine singers invited to participate in the prestigious program.
Carter
will be performing at the Petit Theatre (Montreux Palace Hotel). The winner will receive $5,000 in swiss francs, a
Shure ULX Wireless System and one week of recording time at Balik's
Farm Studio located in Switzerland's Toggenburg region.
The winner also will perform as an opening act to one of the performers of the Montreux Stage the following year.
Carter
received a basketball scholarship to play for Louisiana State
University and graduated with degrees in art history and interior
design. She came to realize her calling as a jazz vocalist and received
a scholarship in the jazz studies program at Michigan State University.
Carter
was one of six students selected to be in the Dianne Reeves Vocal Jazz
Residency at Michigan State, and she received a scholarship in 2008 to attend Jazz Port Townsend.
Carter
was one of 20 singers invited to participate in the Bobby McFerrin
Workshop "Instant Opera," which culminated in a sold-out performance at
Carnegie Hall.
Congratulations to our Artistic Director John
Clayton, who has been confirmed as artist-in-residence at the 2009 Detroit
International Jazz Festival. In honor of the festival’s 30th
anniversary, Clayton was commissioned to compose a new work to be
performed at this year’s festival Labor Day weekend. The new
composition will be performed by Detroit-based Scott Gwinnell Jazz
Orchestra, along with the Clayton Brothers.
Ambrose is the winner of both the 2007 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo
Competition and 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He'll be playing with the Gerald Clayton Trio, and we're confident you'll be blown away by what you hear.
To give you a sample, here's a video of Ambrose soloing at a NYC performance.
Peterson (who passed away shortly before Christmas in 2007) was one jazz's most influential
pianists.
His studio and live partners comprised a roll call of legends,
including Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis
Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Stan Getz.
But his musical journey with Benny Green is special.
"I was blessed to be befriended by Oscar in the fall of 1992, when he
came to hear the trio led by the late, great master of the bass, Ray
Brown, in Toronto. At the time, I was playing piano in Ray’s trio and
Jeff Hamilton was the drummer. Oscar was quite supportive of me after
hearing us play, and he encouraged a friendship, inviting me to
telephone or write him."
In 1993, Peterson won the prestigious Glenn Gould prize - an international award given every three years to an individual in recognition of their contributions to music and communication. At that time took the unusual step of publicly announcing his choice for protégé. He chose Benny Green.
The two pianists first performed together in 1996 at a gala Town Hall concert in honor of Peterson. The New York Times
said of that first musical meeting, “The bejeweled blues sensibility of
the 71-year old pianist was evident in the younger as they traded
sections of melody lines and choruses...”
The two went on to record Oscar and Benny in 1998. For these sessions, Peterson and Green selected a number of standards, exploring
a wide variety of moods and styles. In addition, in the final number,
“Barbara’s Blues, the rhythm section sits out while Peterson and Green
present a dazzling two-piano tapestry. Oscar and Benny features the two pianists celebrating their mutual admiration and musical bond with eloquence and infectious joy.
We hope you can join us on Saturday afternoon, for what we are sure will be an amazing tribute to Oscar Peterson.
