Sarasota Jazz Festival, Sarasota Florida.

          The Jazz Club of Sarasota in which I am a member and volunteer held its annual festival. The venue has been entertaining audiences for 43 years! Its conception was started by Hall Davis who began his P.R. career in the publicity department of CBS. He handled top talent like Benny Goodman's tours abroad. When he and his wife Evelyn retired to Sarasota, they began the club in their condo living room which later grew to the condo meeting room and eventually grew to be a three-day festival which quickly morphed into yearly week-long event.

          This year's festival director was acclaimed trumpet player Terell Stafford hailed as "one of the great players of our time". 

          This infamous soiree featured world renowned artists opening with five-time Grammy nominee Christian Sands who was accompanied by Phil Norris on bass and Ryan Sands on drums.

          Lizz Wright was present with her band that included Kenny Banks Sr. (keys), Ivan Edwards (drums), Adam Levy (guitar) and Ben Zerwin (bass).

          The Allen Carmen Project with Gumbi Ortiz (who played with jazz guitar giant Al Di Meola) is a group of friends since 1980 but have been gigging since 2015.

          Two-time Grammy award winner, Marcus Miller was backed up by trumpeter Russell Gunn, saxophonist Don Hayes, drummer Billy Kilson, guitarist Jordon Long, keyboardist Julian Pollack and on vocals was Leon Timbo.

          Friday night's main stage concert featured Dick Hyman, 2017 NEA Jazz Master and 2001 Satchmo Award was accompanied by Grammy nominated Diego Figueiredo.

          Another two-time Grammy winner, Kurt Elling, a renowned jazz vocalist was accompanied by Charlie Hunter on guitar, Cory Fonville on drums and DJ Harrison on piano.

          The closing night of the Sarasota Jazz festival wrapped up with Paquito D'Rivera, an NEA Jazz Master award winner and recipient of the National Medal for the Arts from President George W. Bush and winner of 14 Grammy and Latin awards. Playing with him was Alex Brown (piano), Hamish Smith (bass), Diego Urcola (horns) and Mauricio Zottarelli (drums).

           Along with the four main stage performances, the venue included a trolley pub crawl which showcased ten artists; Five Point Quintet, Hot Club SRQ, Michael Ross Trio, Eddie Tobin, Panama Drive, Mark and Anne Burnell, The Barker Project, Barbara Jordan Quintet, Melanie Massel Band and the La Lucha Trio who hosted the late-night jam session on Friday. 

          The Synia Carroll Band hosted the late-night jam session on Saturday. Both jams featured up and coming local artists. 

           The Sarasota Jazz festival had a line-up that drew the attention of true jazz aficionados near and far! I am definitely looking forward to next year's arrangement!

All the best,

GMarie