Sonoma Jazz + announces May festival performers
Grammy winning blues guitarist, Bonnie Raitt will appear at the Sonoma Jazz + festival on Sunday, May 25.
Photo submitted
Eclectic as always, the fourth Sonoma Jazz + festival will bring musical all-stars from the genres of funk, jazz and blues/pop/rock to the Field of Dreams this Memorial Day Weekend (Thursday, May 22 through Sunday, May 25). Executive producer Jim Horowitz announced the lineups for this year’s event: Kool and the Gang kick off the party on Thursday night, Friday will herald the return of the legendary Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall will hold court on Saturday night, and Bonnie Raitt will dust off her slide guitar and sing on Sunday, with special guest Keb’ Mo. Other opening acts will be announced later.
A “Locals Special” early pre-sale for residents of Sonoma will be held Saturday, March 8 at the Sonoma Community Center from 2 – 6 p.m. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday March 10 at 10 a.m. at www.sonomajazz.org or by phoning 866.527.8499. Ticket and lodging packages will be available at 800.914.7511 or www.sonomacounty.com. Patron’s tickets are available only by calling 866.468.8355. The last years have been virtual sell-outs.
Thursday, May 22: Kool and the Gang
There is a special sound at the intersection of jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, and pop – and when you get there, you find Kool and the Gang – and a party. It’s no accident that their biggest hit was “Celebration,” but it’s one of many – “Cherish,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Summer Madness,” “Open Sesame” “Ladies Night” – have added up to 70 million albums sold, earning two Grammys, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R & B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits, and 31 gold and platinum albums. Jazz + producers will create a special dance floor for this show.
Saturday, May 23: Diana Krall
Krall is unquestionably the reigning woman vocalist in modern jazz, the Sara Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald of her generation who also happens to be a first-level pianist.
Friday, May 24: Herbie Hancock
To call Herbie Hancock an icon of jazz would be an amusing understatement. His stature can be measured by one simple fact: this year’s “Album of the Year” Grammy, awarded to Mr. Hancock for his tribute to the music of Joni Mitchell, “River: The Joni Letters,” is the first such Grammy ever awarded to a jazz artist. Quite simply, he stands apart from all the musicians of his genre in the past 50 years, both in his ability to play at the very highest level with the creative geniuses of the form, and to create music that is accessible and audience-friendly.
Sunday, May 25: Bonnie Raitt
In 1970, a 20-year-old Radcliffe student dropped out of classes to live her dream, opening for the great blues musicians of the first generation (Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, Sippie Wallace, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker), and more than holding her own as both a vocalist and a guitarist. The daughter of Broadway legend John Raitt (“Oklahoma”), she’d picked up the guitar at eight and the blues at 14, and never wavered from that path.
She really hit her stride by earning three Grammys for “Nick of Time” (quintuple platinum) and then with the single, “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About.”
In 2000 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Sunday, May 25: Keb’ Mo, special guest
In many ways, Grammy winner Keb’ Mo is the ideal partner to Raitt, for he too is part of a younger generation that has nourished the blues. Born to Southern parents but raised in Los Angeles, Kevin Moore became Keb’ Mo when he encountered the music of Muddy Waters and Taj Mahal. Coming of age in the ‘80s, his is a post-modern adaptation of the blues, informed with many other genres.
