Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival

Can you list the lineups of all 34 previous years?

Hi Friends – thanks so much for all your kind words, emails, postings, etc. We had an amazing weekend of incredible music and good times at SPAC. We’ll be making a formal announcement soon on the 35th festival. Dates will be June 30 & July 1. See you next year!!!! thanks – Danny

It was a weekend of GREAT music. Thanks Danny for putting this together. Genius.

Dejohnette group now in first. Dave fiuczynski should curate a day of the gazebo next year.

Ben allison band early favorite.

The weather has changed so if you are thinking about it come on out.

We’ve created a mobile site with the schedule, CD signings and more.

it’s here http://www.spac.org/jazzmobile/

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible this weekend!

DM

http://thefreegeorge.com/thefreegeorge/freihofer-jazz-festival-spac/

On the second day, The Tia Fuller Quartet is misspelled as The Fuller Quartet.

The Jazz Journalists Association announced their 2011 Jazz Award winners today and three of them will perform at the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival on June 25! Congratulations to all the winners and to our three dear friends:

FEMALE SINGER OF THE YEAR
Dee Dee Bridgewater

ALTO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR
Rudresh Mahanthappa

CLARINETIST OF THE YEAR
Anat Cohen

Greeting from Chicago, where we are producing a series of concerts called “United Sounds of America” at Chicago Orchestra Hall. Just wanted to share this, hot off “the presses.”

http://thejazzsession.com/2011/06/10/the-jazz-session-279-2011-saratoga-jazz-fest-preview/

Best – Danny

Thanks for the heads up on using my photo; glad it found a good home.

Hi Friends – check this out:

http://rjonjazz.blogspot.com/2011/06/freihofers-saratoga-jazz-festival-is.html

And we have a SPAC Jazz Radio player on the website now: spac.org/jazzfest

thanks – DM

the debate rages on…..

please see my producer’s notes today:

http://goo.gl/5VO1s

thanks – Danny

David- 3 words: THE BAD PLUS

David- Trust Danny Melnick. He will put on a great weekend. I’m not thrilled with Michael McDonald either but I’ll bet he will be entertaining. Sunday looks especially strong to me. Saratoga is not Newport just like Chicago is not New York. The Saratoga experience stands on its own. 34 years strong for good reason. We get a chance to thank George Wein on Saturday for making all these festivals happen. That is what I look forward to more than anything.

quite frankly, this show pales in comparison with the Newport Jazz festival. The difference is scary. That said, having been to Saratoga twice before, I have made a couple of artist discoveries, although to comment on what a previous reviewer said, I think for a 2 day festival, there should be more than one or two unexpected musical moments. 1st time we went, we got balcony seats, which turned out to be a bad mistake, as the sound is terrible up there; it’s better on the lawn, and the security apparatus won’t allow people into the main auditorium area (even when it’s 90% empty for a lot of the time during the afternoon; it fills up for headliners, which this year on Sat. is blechh, Michael McDonald). I did enjoy myself, but wish the lineup was stronger. Merchandise outside is excellent.

Hey guys! Countdown is on! Spread the good word. It’s going to be a killer weekend, as always~ all about the hang, baby.

SPAC box office opens tomorrow – Sunday, May 8!

A few updates for everyone… Donald Harrison will be featuring his quintet plus Mardi Gras Indians and special guest Cyril Neville!

We discovered recently that our first release went out with an error. Lionel Loueke is spelled as such, not Louke.

While we haven’t completed the set-time schedule, the order of the stages, going from LAST to FIRST (backwards), is as follows:

SAT MAIN STAGE
Michael McDonald
Dee Dee Bridgewater “To Billie with Love”
George Wein & The Newport All Stars
Jack DeJohnette and his all-star band
Eliane Elias Quartet
Ben Allison Band
Lionel Loueke Trio

SAT GAZEBO
Steve Cardenas Trio
Lionel Loueke Trio
“Blindfold Test” featuring jazz bassist Ben Allison
Hilary Kole
Marcus Strickland Quartet

SUN MAIN STAGE
Sing the Truth! featuring Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright
A Night in Treme with Donald Harrison Jr. Quintet and Mardi Gras Indians with special guest Cyril Neville
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
The Bad Plus
The Fuller Quartet
Pedrito Martinez Group

SUN GAZEBO
Pedrito Martinez Group
Matt Slocum Trio
David Binney
Brian Mitchell Band
Rebecca Coupe Franks

Goin’ to New Orleans tomorrow for JazzFest!

All my best – Danny

Hardly jazz? By my calculation, 19 of the 23 performance slots are jazz. Twelve are clearly modern jazz (Ben Allison-2x, Jack DeJohnette, Newport All Stars, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Steve Cardenas, Marcus Strickland, Tia Fuller, The Bad Plus, Rebecca Franks, Matt Slocum, and David Biney). Two other slots, the Lionel Louke spots are the only remotely Afro-centric jazz. Pedrito Martinez’s two slots are the only Latin Jazz on the bill. Donald Harrison is doing a New Orleans Jazz show and Eliane Elias does a Brazilian Jazz thing. Finally, the wonderful vocalist, Hilary Kole (don’t miss her), does a cabaret, songbook, jazz standard act. This leaves only four “non-jazz” acts. Three “soul” acts with Michael Mcdonald, Sharon Jones and the Sing the Truth act being the only one of the three that could be called “recylced” as each of the three singers has performed here before on their own. Considering, it appears this act could be something different, it hardly seems fair to describe the bill as being recycled R&B. Finally, I’ve classified Brian Mitchell as the only Blues act of the weekend. As far as sub par, you are of course entitled to your opinion but frankly of the acts I’ve previously seen (mostly at other venues), I highly recommend Lionel Louke, Eliane Elias (when she sings and not merely plays piano), Michael McDonald, Hilary Kole and Marcus Strickland. As for the remainder, it is the nature of the festival experience that one never knows when one will stumble upon an unexpected terrific musical moment. Just about every year at Saratoga, there have been one or two of those.