Preview- N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest 2011 Will Be Overflowing With Incredible Jazz Talent, With A Look Back, In Photos, At N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest 2010

Preview-

N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest 2011 Will Be Overflowing With Incredible Jazz Talent, With A Look Back, In Photos, At N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest 2010

N.Y.C. Winter Jazzfest 2011, various venues, New York City, January 7^th and 8^th, 2011

By E. Joyce Glasgow

All Photo Credits/ Copyrights: E. Joyce Glasgow

Greenwich Village’s Bleecker Street will be brimming with terrific music on January 7^th and 8^th, 2011, when N. Y. C. Winter Jazzfest celebrates its seventh annual offering. See more information and artists’ bios and videos at www.winterjazzfest.com. Some of New York City’s brightest and most innovative jazz musicians will be bringing their musical projects to perform and the promising line up looks like it will be hot and simmering enough to melt the predicted snowfalls for that weekend. The festival occurs simultaneously at three venues on Friday and five venues on Saturday from 6:00 PM till the wee hours of the morning, both nights. I commend the producers for keeping the prices reasonable and accessible at $ 25 for one night and $35 for a two-night pass to enjoy a stunning sixty plus acts over the course of the two-night event. The venues include Le Poisson Rouge, Kenny’s Castaways and The Bitter End, all within a few steps of each other on Bleecker St. and Sullivan Hall and Zinc Bar, both within a block of the other three clubs, making it easy for jazz lovers to come and go and catch whole sets or snippets of their favorite acts. The venues do get crowded, however, and sometimes it’s hard to get in, so get there early if there is someone you really want to hear and know that that particular group may draw a big crowd or are performing in a smaller venue, like Zinc Bar.

All of the acts sound like they are worth hearing and here are just a large handful of the many highlights of Winter Jazzfest 2011 that I recommend and think will be particularly intriguing and/or exciting, featuring incredible musicians:

· Maestro drummer, bandleader, teacher and NEA Jazz Master, Chico Hamilton, who will be celebrating his 90^th Birthday this year, with Euphoria (sextet)

· Charles Gayle Trio

· Steve Coleman and Five Elements (sextet)

· Jacky Terrasson Trio

· Anat Cohen Quartet

· Don Byron’s New Gospel Quintet, featuring DK Dyson and Geri Allen

· Amina Figarova Sextet

· J.D. Allen’s VisionFugitive! conducted by Butch Morris (eleven-piece band)

· Tia Fuller Quartet

· Milk and Jade by Dana Leong (quartet)

· Amir ElSaffar Quintet

· Tineke Postma Quartet

· Nguyen Le Quartet

· Donny McCaslin Quartet, with Uri Caine

· Kendrick Scott’s Oracle (quintet)

· Matana Roberts, (solo performance)

· Marcus Strickland Quartet

· Source, with Abdoulaye Diabate (sextet)

· Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth (quintet)

· Asphalt Orchestra (twelve-piece band)

· Sameer Gupta’s, Namaskar (sextet)

· Chris Speed’s YeahNO (quartet)

· Aaron Goldberg Trio

· Bad Touch (quartet)

· Ben Perowsky’s Moodswing Orchestra, with TK Wonder

· Aethereal Bace (trio)

· Kirk Knuffke Quartet

· Nels Cline’s Stained Radiance, (duet) with painter, Norton Wisdom

· Juan-Carlos Formell and Johnny’s Dream Club (quintet)

· Charlie Hunter Trio

· Nomo (sextet)

· Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (quartet)

· Orrin Evans and Captain Black Big Band (fifteen-piece band)

· Underground Horns (sextet)

· (U)nity (eleven-piece band)

· Water Surgeons (quartet)

· Robert Glasper Experiment (quartet)

I’ve included above a look back at last year’s Winter Jazzfest 2010 in photos to give readers a bit of a visual picture of the festival, venues and some of the musicians participating last year.

The Winter Jazzfest has proven to be so popular among jazz fans that the producers started an equivalent, two-night summer jazz festival in June of 2010, called Undead Jazzfest.

Visit www.undeadjazzfest.com for more information.