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Chapter 14: Traveling Jazz: Your Ticket to the Best Festivals
Touring Some American Festivals
America has the best jazz of any country in the world. From coast to coast,
numerous annual festivals give you a chance to experience a rich blend of
international, national, and regional talent. In the following sections, you get
the lowdown on some of the best jazz festivals in the United States.
Chicago Jazz Festival
The Chicago Jazz Festival (www.chicagojazzfestival.org) is held each
September in an exotic outdoor setting: urban Grand Park, with its views of
the downtown high-rise skyline. The city’s eclectic jazz history, from 1920s
hot jazz to 1960s free jazz, is reflected in the four-day schedule. Members of
the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), such as
Joseph Jarman and Leroy Jenkins, come to perform their avant garde music,
but there are also events such as 2005’s “Homage to King Oliver.”
Detroit International Jazz Festival
Billed as “America’s largest free jazz festival” (free as in ticket prices, not free
jazz), this festival, held over Labor Day weekend in September, is an urban
spectacle presented amid downtown high rises in Hart Plaza. Covering its
core bases with performers like Dave Brubeck, T.S. Monk, and McCoy Tyner,
the Detroit festival (www.detroitjazzfest.com) also branches into blues
and other related genres. Often, natives like saxophonist Charles McPherson,
who grew up listening to jazz as well as the Motown soul that originated in
Detroit, revisit their roots with performances here.
Earshot Jazz Festival, Seattle
The Space Needle isn’t Seattle’s only attraction, especially for three weeks in
late October and early November. This city presents a great jazz festival that
includes a broader range of music than many, from blues and spoken word to
the best freeform improvised jazz. Earshot (www.earshot.org) fills several
venues and forces you to appreciate this sparkling clean and artistic city.
Hundreds of performers take to the stage in venues all around town, from intimate
clubs to the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Symphony’s Nordstrom
Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, which is renowned for excellent sound. The festival
takes full advantage of the rich arts and cultural scene, with jazz films at
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