|
SONOMA’S FIELD OF DREAMSWorld-class music will return to Sonoma’s Field of Dreams on Memorial Day weekend (May 25-29, 2006) with the second annual Sonoma Jazz Festival. Last year’s smashingly successful debut set a wonderful standard for quality of both talent and presentation, and this year’s event will be just as impressive. The Sonoma Valley benefited not only in having extraordinary music to enjoy; the first Festival raised more than $200,000 for the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation. That’s an incredible figure for a first-time event, and this year will aim just as high on behalf of the same local beneficiaries. The second Festival will kick off in Sonoma Valley, California on Thursday, May 25th at the 3,800 capacity tent with Bay Area blues/rock legend Steve Miller Band with special guest jazz great John Handy. The Steve Miller Band will reprise his many hits, including “The Joker,” “Fly Like An Eagle,” and “Take the Money and Run,” which are so popular that his “Greatest Hits” album went platinum 13 times over. The set will also be specifically jazz inspired, thanks to the participation of one of the great saxophone players in the genre, John Handy and one of Miller’s other cohorts will be his regular band mate, Sonoma’s own harmonica maestro Norton Buffalo. Preceding him will be the English singer-saxophonist-songwriter Curtis Stigers, named by Downbeat magazine as a Rising Male Star. His jazzy interpretations of contemporary tunes by Sting, Randy Newman, and Willie Nelson – as well as his appearances with jazz greats Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, and Toots Thielmans - promise an eclectic evening. Friday night will deliver consummate greatness. Riley “Blues Boy” B.B. King began his career first as a disc jockey and then as an innovative blues guitarist at Sun Records in Memphis in the late 1940s. Early on he scored the classic hit “The Thrill is Gone,” and his love affair with the blues, the road, his guitar “Lucille” and the joy of performance have kept him going ever since. Now, at age 80, he is better than ever. Opening will be the gifted Dianne Reeves, fresh off her Grammy-winning turn for “Best Jazz Vocal Album” for the soundtrack of George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Saturday night will feature one of the great singers of modern blues-pop-jazz, Natalie Cole. The daughter of Nat “King” Cole, her after-the-fact duet with her father on his classic “Unforgettable” has become part of American song history. A “Sunday Surprise” program is not quite ready to be announced. As in the inaugural festival, “Wine and Song” will present a wide variety of small group performances across varying styles from swing to gypsy to soul to blues paired with wines poured from the finest local vineyards in restaurants, bars and courtyards surrounding the historic Sonoma Plaza on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. “Sonoma Jazz After Dark, “ new in 2006, will extend the evening with small club performances in selected Wine & Song venues after the main stage headline concerts are finished Friday – Sunday evenings. Tickets will go on sale nationally on March 13 for special patron tickets; on that day Sonoma residents will be able to get ahead of the rush and purchase tickets in person at Sonoma Valley Music, 521 Broadway, Sonoma, starting at 10AM. General admission tickets will go on sale March 20 by calling 866 527 8499, or by visiting www.sonomajazz.org Edited by Lakisha Hughes |
|
TM