Hot Sounds at JazzFest

Since it began in 2006, JazzFest Denver has always been held in the winter. But this year, it moved to a warmer month and to a new venue: the outdoor amphitheater at City Hall. Festival founder Sterling Kamisky says he likes the venue because it has an open-air feel without...

By Jon Solomon

June 10, 2010

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Since it began in 2006, JazzFest Denver has always been held in the winter. But this year, it moved to a warmer month and to a new venue: the outdoor amphitheater at City Hall. Festival founder Sterling Kamisky says he likes the venue because it has an open-air feel without being in a park, and he’s assembled an ideal lineup to complement that feel. Artists performing today include three-time Grammy-award-winning jazz vocalist and pianist Karrin Allyson, Seattle’s Thomas Marriott, New Yorker Ray Vega from the East-West Trumpet Summit, and local tenor saxophonist Peter Sommer, who will perform with student groups from the Colorado Conservatory of the Jazz Arts.

Tomorrow, the CU Jazz Lab Combo kicks things off at noon, followed by Brad Goode’s Polytonal Dance Party, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson and Brazil-based Trio da Paz. “Live jazz and live music is just where it’s at,” Kaminsky says. “You can listen to all the CDs, you can see the DVDs, but it’s never quite the same as seeing it live.”

One-day passes are $50 and $25 for students, and two-day passes run $95 and $50. City Hall is at 1144 Broadway; for more information, call 303-674-9313 or visit www.jazzfestdenver.org.
June 12-13, 2010

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