jazztrax.com
JazzTrax this week: January 30th-31st
On this week's show: New David Lanz - Festival Updates
JazzTrax
Producer's Notes:
Snow on the Lake... for now
 
 
Art GoodIt is the dead of winter when all of the Stars of Smooth Jazz get positioned for the Summer Smooth Jazz Festival Stages ('course it's the heat of summer when they record all the Christmas albums....smile). The emails have been flying all January from The JazzTrax Studio to the camps of Euge Groove, Earl Klugh, Fourplay, Mindi Abair, Peter White, Gerald Albright, Hiroshima, Everette Harp, Greg Adams, Eric Darius, Warren Hill, Nick Colionne, Cindy Bradley and more!

Catalina
We're getting set to post, as February begins, some of the major headliners for each of October's JazzTrax Festival Weekends on Catalina Island. We're inches from a bunch of confirmations. And inches from giving you that information here on our weekly JazzTrax alert and on JazzTrax.com. Mindi Abair is already confirmed for one of October's Unplugged evenings at the Wrigley Ranch and our fingers are crossed that Australian Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel will accept our Unplugged at the Ranch offer.

Art GoodAs everyone knows, the very best Club Section seats and very best Avalon rental homes, Hamilton Cove Villa's with private golf cart, and Hotel spaces get snapped up early in the year. The 24th annual Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival has already pre-sold a heck of a lot of seats with many Club Section patrons having owned the same seats or tables for two decades. Now is the time to see who didn't renew. That front row seat or french door section table you've always dreamed of ... might finally have come loose! You can view the Seating Chart on-line and see exactly what's available. Click 'Tickets' here or anywhere you see 'Tickets' at JazzTrax.com.

October JazzTrax Festival Tickets are on sale virtually year round. Full Series Tickets are on sale right now. Single Session Tickets will go on sale near Memorial Day Weekend.

Big Bear
Art GoodWe're also inches away from announcing the Artist Line-Up for June's Big Bear Lake JazzTrax Summer Music Festival. Mindi Abair and Euge Groove are confirmed for Father's Day Weekend there on our summertime mountain lake. It's a brand new JazzTrax Venue... right on the water... right on the lake... and right in the Village of Big Bear Lake.

If you book rooms in one of our two host hotels, you'll need no car once you arrive for the weekend. A Summertime 'Ski In, Ski Out'. Walk from your hotel room to the JazzTrax Festival site or walk into the Village for restaurants and shopping. Some of the host hotel rooms literally look at the stage. You can leave your seats and still enjoy the concerts from your hotel room! Hotel ticket packages will be announced shortly.

And we're planning on a floating stage. The Stars of Smooth Jazz on the Lake. The setting is similar to Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay in San Diego... but on Big Bear Lake. We plan to begin Friday night June 18th with a Sunset Cocktail Party in the JazzTrax Festival venue as the sun sets on Big Bear Lake, which it will also do during Mindi and Euge performances on Saturday and Sunday June 19th and 20th!

Tickets will go on sale in February for the 2010 Big Bear Lake JazzTrax Summer Music Festival. We got stalled a bit on our seating chart last week... six feet of snow fell on Big Bear. I pulled into the JazzTrax Studio a week ago Wednesday, a foot had already fallen the day before. As my car hit my driveway it began snowing and did not stop for three days. The JazzTrax cabin had snow over my head. I was snowed in for four days. Fortunately I had stopped at Von's on the way in. Had to snowshoe down into the village to see people, otherwise thoughts of Jack Nicholson from The Shining kept creeping into my head. Lost all Internet, cable, and phones for the week. But the skiing at Snow Summit was incredible. All that snow will be in the Lake and the Lake should be brimming when you arrive for June's JazzTrax Summer Music Festival.

Attention Milwaukee
Jazz on the VineI'd like to give a shout out to a fabulous Smooth Jazz festival in Wisconsin, produced by my friend John Ertl. The Artist Line-Up is set for Jazz on the Vine, held about an hour outside Milwaukee, at the Osthoff Resort. Nick Colionne is the Guest Emcee with The Average White Band, Earl Klugh, Greg Adams, East Bay Soul, Michael Lington, Paul Taylor, and Davina & the Vagabonds. Visit JazzOnTheVine.net or call 800-876-3399. A weekend of Smooth Jazz, exotic international and domestic wines, and delicious creations of eclectic and sophisticated cuisine by an award-winning culinary team. The Osthoff Resort is in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and the event includes a closing Sunday Brunch. A great weekend getaway, especially if you are a JazzTrax listener in Milwaukee or nearby. May 7th, 8th, 9th, 2010.

May your week be as sweet as mine, with snowflakes dropping down into your Martini Glass too.
 
Art Good
JazzTrax Producer/Creator

 

The JazzTrax Radio Show
Weekend of  January 30th - 31st
Listen to this Week's 5-Hour
Showcase of the Absolute Newest!
 
 
JazzTrax Guest
Piano music for inside and out
with David Lanz

Winter is a great time for a "piano" album. Storms outside. Maybe some storms goin' on "inside." Still planning for the still fresh new year while trying to forget a whole lot from the past year. When along comes David Lanz. No longer Seattle pianist, because he and wife moved further North, just below the Canadian border, to Bellingham, near to the fast approaching Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The pianist who gave us "Cristofori's Dream" two decades ago, plus "Behind the Waterfall", long heard beneath all JazzTrax Festival radio commercials, will be this weekend's JazzTrax Guest to Debut his new 'Liverpool'. A piano re-imaging of the music of the Beatles. However, subtle enough, the Beatles aspect doesn't necessarily jump out at you. The son of Sir Lawrence Olivier guests as a quick voice. The keyboardist from acres of historic pop hit songs,Larry Knechtel, including Simon & Garfunkle's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" gives one of his final session performances before unexpectedly passing away last year. David Lanz will also share stories of living in Vancouver in the early 70's and being the keyboardist on Terry Jacks long ago memory hit "Seasons in the Sun."
   
   
Archive Album
2006 Bob James 'Urban Flamingo'

Like I said, a great time of year for a piano album. So we go piano with our Archives Album Spotlight too. Bob James had a release in 2006 that was vastly underrated except by JazzTrax. It was our No. 2 Album of the Year and included our No. 2 Song of the Year. We called it the puppy adoption song, "Choose Me"! Plus a guest appearance by Earl Klugh and fellow Fourplay'er Nathan East forsome great scat. 'Urban Flamingo' is this weekend's JazzTrax Archives Album and it's gotta make you want to really turn it up. Bob James is one of the truly best melody composers of our time.
     
    Listen Right Now! to JazzTrax On Demand
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Special Offer:
New Compilation from A-Train and There Records
 
 
Ringing in the New Year, A Train Digital announces the release of A Train Tracks, a quarterly series of compilations, featuring the best and brightest from their catalog. First up in the series is Nu Jazz, 11 tracks from smooth, contemporary and not so smooth jazz artists including veterans Gregg Karukas, Peter White and Joyce Cooling along with a brand new exclusive from newcomer Selina Albright, daughter of Gerald Albright. Also included are new tracks from Deems Tsutakawa and Willie and the Locos, and an old classic from the New Jazz Hustlers, available for the first time digitally!  

BONUS to JazzTrax listeners: 
Purchase the Nu Jazz compilation on iTunes and get a free bonus streaming preview track 'Mama Mia'  from the new project from Willie and the Locos (with Bill Macpherson).

 

The JazzTrax Radio Show in February 2010
The Weekly 5-Hour Showcase of the Absolute Newest
featuring the Stars of Smooth Jazz and a Classic Archive Album
   
Weekend of Feb. 6th-7th
Show #1006
Guest:
Pianist Jim Brickman to debut 'Faith'
Archive Album:
Chuck Loeb 2002 'All There Is'

 

   
Weekend of Feb. 13th-14th
Show #1007
Guest:
Je Sample
Archive Album:
Kenny G 1986 'DuoTones'

 

   
Weekend of Feb. 20th-21st
Show #1008
Guest:
Alex Bugnon to debut 'Going Home'
Archive Album:
Chris Standring 2000 'Hip Sway'

 

   
Weekend of Feb. 27th-28th
Show #1009
Guest:
Chris Standring to debut 'Blue Bolero'
Archive Album:
Yellowjackets 1986 'Shades'

 

   
Weekend of March 6th-7th
Show #1010
Guest:
t.b.a.
Archive Album:
Nick Colionne 2006 'Keepin' It Cool'

 

a-Train Nu Jazz
Catalina Pix
 
The 24th Annual
Catalina Island
JazzTrax Festival 
~ since 1987 ~
 
Plan Ahead for
 October 2010!

Full Session Tickets
On Sale NOW!

The Best Seats
sell first!
 
~ Club Section ~
~ Front Rows ~
~ Ballroom Tables ~
~ Verandah High Tops ~


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