That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

250
Part III: The Beat Goes On: Jazz Appreciation 101
Festival circuit bands have names that reek of nostalgia: The Bearcats, Buck
Creek, Cornet Chop Suey, Night Blooming Jazzmen, Royal Society Jazz
Orchestra, Titanic Jazz Band, and the 101st Army Dixieland Band. For music
largely invented by black musicians in the South, today’s traditional jazz festivals
are mostly inhabited by white musicians in the West. The music is mostly
in the same vein, and many of the same bands show up at several festivals.
Here are a few traditional fests to start you off:
� Colorado River Jazz Festival, Blythe, California: Blythe is a tiny town
on the California-Nevada border that sizzles in summer and is one of the
warmest spots in the country in February, when the Colorado River Jazz
Festival (home.earthlink.net/~blythejazzfest) takes place over
three days at the Colorado River Fair Grounds. The dry, flat, desert
beauty of the place provides a beautiful backdrop for a mix of jazz by
some of the groups named earlier, as well as distinctly West Coast bands
like Alcatraz Angeles (named after the island in San Francisco Bay that
was once home to a famous prison).
� Dixieland Jazz by the Sea, San Clemente, California: San Clemente is a
coastal beach town midway between San Diego and Los Angeles that
plays host to the Dixieland festival (www.sanclementerotary.org/
jazz) for two days each May. Unlike other Southern California cities,
San Clemente retains much of its original charm, with neighborhood
restaurants and shops and small, reasonably affordable motels. The festival
is held at the San Clemente Community Center, a cozy Spanish-style
building typical of the area’s regional architecture.
� Dixieland-Monterey’s Jazz Bash by the Bay, California: Monterey
has some of California’s earliest history and one of the longest-running
traditional jazz festivals. Dixieland-Monterey’s Jazz Bash by the Bay
(www.dixieland-monterey.com) began in 1980 and emphasizes
classic jazz, big bands, swing, and ragtime. The waterfront location is a
draw not only for fans but also for top-drawer jazz acts that perform at
the three-day festival in early March. You hear echoes of Louis Armstrong,
Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, and old New Orleans bands dominated
by trumpets, trombones, tubas, banjos, and clarinets.
� Sacramento Jazz Jubilee: The largest of the traditional jazz festivals,
the Jubilee (www.sacjazz.com) draws more than 100,000 rabid fans to
California’s capital city to hear 125 bands during four days over
Memorial Day weekend. The fest emphasizes traditional jazz, but since
the first event more than 30 years ago, it’s expanded to include gospel,
Latin, western swing, and zydeco.
� San Diego Thanksgiving Dixieland Jazz Festival: While the rest of the
nation begins its autumn chill, San Diego often gets a hot desert wind
known as a “Santa Ana” that takes temperatures into the summer range.