May 2004

Noted jazz artists Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade are teaming up for a series of tour dates. The quartet will kick off its stateside run June 18 in Jacksonville, Ore. Six dates are on the books through a June 26 performance in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A brief European schedule in July is expected to follow.

Here are the Hancock, Shorter, Holland and Blade tour dates:

June 18: Jacksonville, Ore. (Britt Pavilion)
June 19: San Francisco (San Francisco Jazz Festival)
June 20: Los Angeles (Playboy Jazz Festival)
June 24: Ottawa (International Jazz Festival)
June 25: New York (Carnegie Hall)
June 26: Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)

The U.S. Open of Mountain Biking returns to Diablo Freeride Park at Mountain Creek in Vernon, NJ for the second consecutive year. This three-day event boasts a huge $20,000 Downhill Pro Purse, while offering a staggering $5,000 cash prize to first place in both the men

The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival turns 11 this year when the annual event returns to the Rocky Mountains on Friday, September 17 though Sunday, September 19. B.B. King is scheduled to be the closing headliner on Sunday, with Jonny Lang and Gov’t Mule headlining Friday and Saturday respectively.

Every September, the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival plays host to more than 20 national touring bands, 50 microbreweries, and a sold-out crowd of 8,000 adventure-seekers who come from around the country. The three-day family-friendly celebration of live music and microbrews takes place within the unparalleled culture and wilderness of the Rocky Mountain landscape. At an elevation of 8,750 feet, this mountain hamlet is home to the famous Telluride Town Park, an outdoor music venue with a humble wooden stage, towering mountain peaks for a backdrop, and a pristine mountain valley for a dance floor.

In addition to the King and Mule, this year’s lineup consists of Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Stockholm Syndrome featuring Dave Schools and Jerry Joseph, Shemekia Copeland, Elvin Bishop, Indigenous, Papa Grows Funk, Bonerama, Gospel Hummingbirds, Hazel Miller, Mofro, Tommy Elskes and Friends and many more.

While the main stage in Telluride Town Park is the heart of the festival, the atmosphere is spread throughout the town with late night shows in local Juke Joints, an after-hours jam, the Telluride Acoustic Blues Camp and Competition, sponsored by Acoustic Guitar magazine, Back Porch Blues and Blues for Breakfast. In addition to live music, attendees can enjoy The Rainbow Kids Area, and The Grand Tasting on Saturday, September 18 which features more than 100 different flavors of beer by microbreweries from the Western U.S. Also, on site for the first time this year, will be a traveling exhibit by Gibson Guitars.

Three-day passes are currently on sale and single-day passes go on sale June 1. To order tickets, check availability, and/or make camping reservations, call 866-515-6166 (toll free) or log on to tellurideblues.com.

Jam Cruise 1 and 2 were crowning achievements within the changing face of music festivals and cruise travel. Now, the original Jam Cruise announces Jam Cruise 3, leaving port in Jacksonville, Florida on January 6, 2005 for 4 days aboard Carnival Cruiselines’ Celebration.

Jam Cruise 3 will stop in Freeport, Bahamas and, fulfilling a popular request on a questionnaire filled out by last year’s cruisers, will offer passengers two full days at sea. The Celebration accommodates 1500 passengers (double the size of the Regal Empress cruise liner used for 1 and 2), and boasts such luxury amenities as 3 pools, nine passenger decks, ten lounges, a twenty-four-hour pizza bar and dinnertime sushi bar, a health spa, and large and comfortable lodging facilities. The fans spoke up and Jam Cruise organizers have listened.

Jam Cruise 3 will host over thirty music performances, featuring fifteen bands from one of today’s most thriving music communities – that of improvisational music. The current line up includes Galactic, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), Col Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit (1st show in 10 years!), Ozomatli, North Mississippi Allstars, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, Umphrey’s McGee, MOFRO, Benevento/Russo Duo, DJ Logic, with more artists to be announced soon. In addition to incredible performances by many of the genre’s most celebrated musical pioneers, the Jam Cruise experience promises once-in-a-lifetime artist collaborations and opportunities for hang time with the musicians who are so often inaccessible backstage.

On sale begins Wednesday, May 19 at 11:00 am MST. Cabin prices range from $550 to $1125.00 per person, plus port charges, service fees and gratuities. Call 303.544.0191 or visit jamcruise.com for reservations aboard Jam Cruise 3.

Club D’Elf has announced the release of three live shows from the band’s archives, and hopes to continue the offering as an ongoing project. Unlike As Above, the band’s only commercially available release culled from 6 different nights, these are all complete shows from single nights.

Vassar 2/26/01
With John Medeski, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Randy Roos, Mike Rivard & Erik Kerr – performing in Poughkeepsie, NY on the band’s first tour.

New York 4/20/00
With John Medeski, Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Mike Rivard & Erik Kerr, and Eric Hipp & Richard Zukowski helping out, too – on the band’s first out-of-cambridge gig.

Athens 3/28/02
With John Medeski, Reeves Gabrels, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard & Eric Kalb – from the band’s first southern tour.

Releases will be sold through kufala.com and at upcoming Club D’elf shows.

To celebrate, D’Elf has announced a run of CD release gigs.

Thurs May 6, Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA with Duke Levine, Tom Hall, Jerry Leake, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Tues May 18, AS220, Providence RI with Dave Tronzo, Mat Maneri, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Thurs May 20, Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA with Dave “fuze” Fiuczynski, Alain Mallet, Jerry Leake, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Wed May 26, Tonic, NYC, NY with John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Eric Hipp, Curtis Hasselbring, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard and Adam Deitch. This marks the the first time Ribot has ever joined D’Elf.

For more info, see kufala.com

On June 8th, Stevie Wonder will release A Time 2 Love, his first new studio album since 1995.

On June 10, the artist will be presented with the Johnny Mercer Award by the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame, for the “high quality and impact” of his body of work.

A Time 2 Love is the follow-up to Conversation Peace, which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 366,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source Billboard.com.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters is planning to debut his opera Ca Ira in St Petersburg, Russia.

Plans to premiere the opera in Paris have been scrapped according to fansite rogerwatersonline.com with the proposed new venue looking like The Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

A date is yet to be set for the premiere but fans in Malta heard three songs ‘Ca Ira Overture,’ ‘Taking of Bastille,’ and ‘Sugar Indigo’ during the European Union celebrations last weekend. The three songs were used as the soundtrack to the fireworks as 10 new countries became part of the EU.

Waters has been working on the opera for over 20 years. He had initially hoped to finish it by 1989 for the bi-centennial of the French Revolution.

The work is planned for release as a CD and possibly DVD. When it is released it will be available in both English and a French version.

Source undercover.com.au.