Cape May NJ Jazz Festival

Lady Kayri · #1 01-22-2009, 07:46 PM

Anyone other than me going to be in Cape May, NJ for either of the2009 jazz festivals? They're on April 17-19 and November 6 - 8. I work at one of the hotels in Cape May so obviously will be around. Would love to get together with any of the rest of you who are planning on either attending or playing at any of the venues. The place I work at has a meeting room we can use if anyone else is interested.

Pat Munson-Siter

kesslari · #2 01-23-2009, 09:53 PM

I'm on the other coast, so no...
But I grew up spending summers in Cape May, and a Jazz Fest there sounds like a great time.

Funny thing is, out here in Soquel CA is another one of the Concrete Ships...

Lady Kayri · #3 01-23-2009, 11:26 PM

Yep. I read in a book there were something like 10 or 11 of the concrete ships made. If you remember the old WWII gun emplacement along the same stretch of beach that was quite a few yards out in the bay, the Corps of Engineers recently dumped loads of sand along the area, and the gun emplacement is now back about 10 yards or so from the beach edge; you can walk around it with no problems. They've got all the entrances blocked so no one can get into it any more...

This is something like the 15th annual Jazz Festival year. In a way, they've sort of turned Cape May into the Jazz capitol of New Jersey. Most of the local music scene at the moment is either jazz, some fusion, or classic rock; there are the occasional CxW and folk groups, but not too many...

You'd probably be surprised at how much the Cape May Zoo has changed, too...

Pat

Relic · #4 01-28-2009, 12:03 PM

Wow I haven't been to Cape May in a while, I used to go all the time and I loved it. The jazz festival sounds pretty cool.

Lady Kayri · #5 01-29-2009, 03:20 PM

Mostly small venues (30 - 50 people in audiance) aside for a few of the bigger events, lots of 'jam' time, lots of clinics/classes as well. I just wish I could get to some of the clinics, but they're during the day when I am at work. Sigh. Google "Cape May Jazz Festival" and you'll find quite a bit of information. I don't have the current info flyer with me at the moment; I'll try to pick up a copy tomorrow and will post info as to who will be playing, etc. when I get a chance. I know that Frank Bey and the Swing City Blues Band (his normal backing band here in Cape May) are supposed to be playing; he's one of the more or less local jazz musos who regularly play at the festival (he also performs fairly frequently in Philly.) If you do decide to try and come, drop me a PM, I'd love to meet some more folks from TB... Pat

Lady Kayri · #6 02-07-2009, 03:27 PM

More info on the April Jazz Festival, thanks to www.capemayjazz.com/festival.cfm; April 17 - 19 2009 (no data yet on the Nov event); 31st Jazz Festival "Legends & More Blues" with tributes to Billy Eckstine & Sarah Vaughn; featured artists will include Odean Pope, Barbara King, Andrew Jr. Boy Jones Blues, Sylvia Cuenca Group, Tom Zmuda * the Thurs. Night Jazz, Divine Jazz Combo, Alan Keber & Friends, James Cotton Blues Band, Sharon Clark, Mayra Casales Group, Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gand, Roni Ben-Hur, Michael Thomas Quintet, Little Jazz Giants, Young Lions Jazz Quartet, and the Juke Joints Last Stand. There will probably be other groups added, especially in the various jam sessions, as time gets closer to the festival, and at some venues that aren't officially part of the Festival. There will be both saxophone and guitar workshops, and a Jazz Improv workshop as well. You'll need at least one year's experience playing your instrument in order to get into the Improv workshops; workshops seem to be free but first come first served as far as getting into them. (And of course they're almost all Saturday morning and early afternoon, when yours truly will be at work. Meh.)

I can't tell you for sure how busy / full hotels and venues will be this April. Last April we were full up and venues were very crowded; but the November event last year saw quite a few open rooms and not nearly as many people showing up for events. Our hotel hasn't found out yet how many packages we're going to be allowed to offer so don't have our packages listed on the website or being offered via phone reservations yet; last time we had packages that didn't get used - rooms ended up being rented to people who either were attending but didn't want to pay for packages, or hadn't planned on going to the festival at all. (didn't help that the 'Sherlock Holmes Weekend' was scheduled for the same time as the Jazz Festival, either.) We had all our rooms rented for that weekend, but ended up turning packages back over to the Jazz Festival committee for them to try and sell tickets at the door....

If anyone wants more details as to hotels, etc. please PM me and I'll be happy to see what information I can send you.

Pat