The San Francisco Jazz Festival has announced artists scheduled for its 25th edition. This quarter-century anniversary celebration will take place Sept. 22 to Nov. 30. SFJAZZ has organized five weeks of performances by over 30 different jazz artists.
On Sept. 22, the festival will kick off with a performance by John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension. In a press release, SFJAZZ Executive Director Randall Kline said, “The 25th Anniversary season is an opportunity to revisit favorite artists while presenting the festival debut of some exciting new talents.”
Among the new faces are groups Happy Apple and Kneebody (11/7), saxophonist Anat Cohen (10/27) and Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen (11/4). Other well-known artists include Grammy-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater (10/19), Kurt Elling and Nancy King (11/10), Ornette Coleman (10/28), Caetano Veloso (11/17) and many others.
SFJAZZ will also be awarding the SFJAZZ Beacon Award for 2007 to Pete Escovedo at the awards ceremony Oct. 27. Escovedo will be leading his Latin-jazz Orchestra at the Beacon Awards ceremony.
Members of SFJAZZ will also be able to attend a handful of special events, such as a listening party with New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff on Sept. 18 for his new book, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound.
Tickets for the festival go on sale July 15 and for a full artist line up during the festival visit sfjazz.org.
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