Thursday, February 10, 2011

Playboy Jazz Festival Lineup Announced

Dianne Reeves will headline Saturday's lineup for this summer classic. Joining Dianne will be The Roots w/Terrance Blanchard, Fourplay, Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra, SF Jazz Collective, A Night in Treme: The Musical Majesty of New Orleans, The Cosby All Stars, Ambrose Akinmusire, and the LAUSD All City HS Big Band.

Sunday's headliner is blues legend Buddy Guy. Completing the lineup is: the Pullum HS Jazz Big Band, Carlos Varela, Bull Cunliffe and the Resonance Big Band, Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown, Geri Allen and her Timeline Band, Harmony 3 (Ronnie Laws, Walter Beasley, and Stanley Jordan), Naturally 7, John Scofield and Robben Ford, and Lee Konitz New Quartet. Emcee for both days is Bill Cosby.

Ticket priority goes to those that purchase for both days, and range from $40 - $100 for both days. Download the form to send in your ticket order.

This is my idea of fun in the sun!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

33rd Annual Playboy Jazz Festival Tickets on Sale Now!!!

The comment I get most often about the Playboy Jazz Festival comes in late May or early June. Most often it comes from friends that hear us talking about it and our plans to go. On hearing about those plans, we always hear "I wish I heard about it sooner". What they don't realize is, we start our planning for this festival in January, which is when the tickets go on sale. The date of this year's festival is June 11-12. Tickets went on sale to the public on January 25th. So far the list of artists scheduled to appear (subject to change) includes: Buddy Guy, Dianne Reeves, Fourplay, Naturally 7, Eddie Palmieri, and Lee Konitz. That's just the beginning, but more on that later.

This is one of those "must go to" festivals. It's so deep with us, we hold all plans for the mid June weekends until we find out exactly when the festival will be held. Then we plan everything else around that. That's considerable given that we're also photographers and we're talking about the height of the wedding season.

What's so special about this festival? That's a fair question if you haven't been. To start with, it's at the Hollywood Bowl. We're talking early summer, perfect weather (normally), and two days of outdoor concerts. Make no mistake, this is a huge, two-day party. There are relatively few restrictions on what you can bring in terms of food and drink. Over the years we've seen some seriously elaborate spreads, complete with fine wines and champagne.