Press Contact: Jessica Felix, jessicafelix.ap@gmail.com

March 26, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Healdsburg Jazz Festival Celebrates its 15th Anniversary,
May 31- June 9

 Let the Party Begin! Healdsburg Jazz Festival celebrates its 15th Anniversary with a two day Tribute to Charlie Haden, an exclusive 2013 engagement of the Charles Lloyd–Jason Moran duo, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK® and the premier of the HJF Freedom Jazz Choir.

The 15th anniversary Healdsburg Jazz Festival is a cascade of major-league jazz talent, starting on the first weekend with a two-day tribute to bass-playing legend Charlie Haden that will include Carla Bley, Bill Frisell, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Lee Konitz, Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, Chris Potter and many more honoring the master.

The festival finale will be a treat for lovers of the human voice – the extraordinary vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock playing outdoors along with high energy saxophonist Azar Lawrence and his tight foursome. In between there is top-level jazz daily. Healdsburg is proud to present the exclusive 2013 U.S. engagement of the Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran duet. Pianist Fred Hersch arrives with a trio that’s the talk of the jazz world, bassist/composer Marcus Shelby is combining his 17-piece orchestra with a 100-plus-strong newly created HJF Freedom Jazz Choir, bassist John Heard leads a hard-swinging quartet, guitarist extraordinaire Will Bernard brings in the funky jazz, and drummer Sylvia Cuenca powers a scintillating trio.

That’s sure not all, either. Check out multi-instrumentalist Roger Glenn and his Latin Jazz Ensemble playing free at the Healdsburg Plaza. Two ace Dixieland outfits, the Frisco Jazz Band and the New Horizon Stompers, are on the bill at Costeaux Bakery. A couple of new food-and-wine venues join the mix: the dynamically designed Healdsburg SHED, where John Heard will swing, and Partake by K-J, a small bites and wine flights establishment that’s presenting Carlitos Medrano & Sabor de Mi Cuba one night and Brazilian-jazz talent Carlos Henrique Pereira another. Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen returns to the fest, hosting the ever-tasty Terry Henry Trio.  Liberation Music Orchestra drummer Matt Wilson leads a workshop, and the Mad and Eddie Duran Quartet spread sax-guitar bop bliss.

The Charlie Haden Tribute will honor the NEA Jazz Master and Lifetime Achievement Grammy winner who set the jazz world on its ear when he appeared with the Ornette Coleman Quartet in 1959.  Thanks in part to an NEA  Arts Works Grant, more than 20 of Haden’s cohorts, some going back decades with the bassist, are set to perform, including the two bands he’s devoted most of his time to, the Liberation Music Orchestra, conducted by his long time collaborator, the great Carla Bley, and Quartet West with Alan Broadbent and special guest Ravi Coltrane. Haden’s talented triplet daughters Petra, Tanya and Rachel and son Josh are going to sing, which is what Haden started out doing professionally as a small child in Shenandoah, Iowa. Other participants in the Haden bash include Matt Wilson,Darek Oles Chris Cheek, Seneca Black, Michael Rodriguez Joe Daley, Curtis Fowlkes, Loren Stillman, and Vincent Chancey.

Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran’s performance will draw from their stunning new album Hagar’s Song, which balances a suite of songs about one of Lloyd’s slave ancestors with tunes by great American composers.

Marcus Shelby and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival joined forces to create a special choir thanks to the support of a James Irvine Foundation grant that encourages tapping into the diverse communities of Sonoma County  by creating a free and open-to-all choir engaging the public in the arts. Called the Healdsburg Jazz Festival Freedom Jazz Choir, this ensemble combines with the 17 piece Marcus Shelby Orchestra featuring Faye Carol to perform selections from Shelby’s epic suite Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and various other civil rights based freedom songs.

Closing out the festival, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK is a one-of-a-kind a-cappella group that combines African chanting, African American gospel, spirituals, jazz, blues and folk to sing songs about justice, tragedy, greed, life and love. Sweet Honey’s concert will be a tacit tying together of some of the 15th anniversary festival’s themes – from the Liberation Music Orchestra’s anti-war freedom ballads to Charles Lloyd’s evocations of this family-tree slavery to the Shelby Orchestra’s celebration of an historic Civil Rights leader. On this double bill is the Azar Lawrence Quartet featuring monster drummer Alphonse Mouzon.

As traditional, Rodney Strong Vineyards provides its beautiful lawn for the festival finale, one of the features that makes the Healdsburg Jazz Festival the intimate yet expansive jazz attraction it’s been for 15 years.

HEALDSBURG JAZZ FESTIVAL SCHEDULE – MAY 31-JUNE 9, 2013
Schedule is online at http://www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org/wordpress/2013-festival/2013-festival-schedule-2/

FRIDAY 5/31
Frisco Jazz Band
New Horizon Stompers
Costeuax Bakery and Café
417 Healdsburg Avenue
7:30pm | $25

John Heard Quartet
Healdsburg SHED
25 North Street
8pm | $25

SATURDAY 6/1
Matt Wilson Workshop
Sonoma Country Day School
4400 Day School place, Santa Rosa
2-4pm | $20

Tribute to Charlie Haden: Day 1
Jackson Theater
4400 Day School place, Santa Rosa
7pm | $75 | $55 | $45
Set 1 – Geri Allen, solo and duo with Chris Potter   
Set 2 – Lee Konitz Quartet with Alan Broadbent, Darek Oles and Matt Wilson
Set 3 – Quartet West with Alan Broadbent, Rodney Green and guest Ravi Coltrane

SUNDAY 6/2
Tribute to Charlie Haden: Day 2
Jackson Theater
4400 Day School place, Santa Rosa
7pm | $75 | $55 | $45
Set 1 – Gonzalo Rubalcaba, solo piano
Set 2 – Bill Frisell plus the Haden Family, Rachel, Petra, Tanya and Josh Haden
Set 3 – Liberation Music Orchestra featuring Carla Bley

MONDAY 6/3
Terry Henry Trio
Dry Creek Kitchen
317 Healdsburg Avenue
7-10pm | Reservation Recommended

TUESDAY 6/4
Roger Glenn Latin Jazz Ensemble
Healdsburg Plaza
6-8pm | Free

TUESDAY 6/4
Carlitos Medrano and
Sabor de mi Cuba
Kendall-Jackson Tasting Lounge and Flight Club
241 Healdsburg Avenue
8-10pm | No Cover

WEDNESDAY 6/5
Will Bernard Quartet
Spoonbar
219 Healdsburg Avenue
7:30-10:30pm | No Cover

THURSDAY 6/6
Marcus Shelby Orchestra and the
HJF Freedom Jazz Choir
Raven Theater 
115 North Street
7:00pm | $20

FRIDAY 6/7
Carlos Henrique Pereira
Kendall-Jackson Tasting Lounge and Flight Club
241 Healdsburg Avenue
5-7pm | No Cover

Fred Hersch Trio
Raven Theater
115 North Street
7:30pm | $65 | $45

Sylvia Cuenca Trio
Hotel Healdsburg Lobby
25 Matheson Street
9pm-midnight | No Cover

SATURDAY 6/8
Arrows to Infinity
Northern California Film Premiere
Raven Theater
115 North Street
11Am | $10

Mad & Eddie Duran Quartet
Seasons of the Vineyard
113 Plaza Street
4-6pm | No Cover

Charles Lloyd – Jason Moran
Raven Theater
115 North Street
7:30pm | $75 | $55

Sylvia Cuenca Trio
Hotel Healdsburg Lobby
25 Matheson Street
9pm-midnight | No Cover

SUNDAY 6/9
SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK®
Azar Lawrence Quartet with Alphonse Mouzon
Rodney Strong Vineyards
11455 Old Redwood Highway
3pm, gates open at 2pm
$75 Bar Level on Bar Stools  | $65 Shaded area with Chairs |$45 Lawn
Children 10 and under free
For lawn seating, low chairs only, & no umbrellas

ALL VENUES ARE IN HEALDSBURG
HEALDSBURG UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

SCHEDULE JPEG.
http://www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/HJF13_SCHEDULEpdf.jpg

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