It might seem odd to be thinking about Thanksgiving at the end of July, but this post has very little to do with heavier clothing or sitting down with the family to a traditional holiday meal. In fact, what I’m suggesting might be the way to escape the predictable festivities, or at least to make them festive in a different way with more lively music.
Why not run off to the 33rd annual San Diego Thanksgiving Jazz Festival — beginning on Wednesday night, November 21, 2012, and continuing until Sunday afternoon, November 25? There will be over forty hours of live music — with several bands playing simultaneously in different locations. The location is the comfortable Town and Country Resort and Convention Center, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, California 92110. Rates start at $105 per night, and you can call 800-772-8527 or 619-291-7131 to reserve. A badge enabling you to see and hear everything for five days and nights is $95. For more information about the festival, visit here.
But I can hear you saying, “If I’m going to run off from a family gathering, there had better be hot music in profusion to make it worth my while.” No worries, as the children say. How about Katie Cavera, John Gill, the Reynolds Brothers, Carl Sonny Leyland, Uptown Lowdown, the Yerba Buena Stompers, the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra, Grand Dominion, Tim Laughlin and Connie Jones and their New Orleans All-Stars, Chloe Feoranzo, Red Skunk Jipzee Swing, Nannette and her Hotsy Totsy Boys, Stephanie Trick, Cornet Chop Suey, Dave Bennett, and many others?
One special attraction — appearing on Friday night only — is Nouveau Stride, which pairs singer Lorraine Feather and pianist Stephanie Trick in a program of compositions by Fats Waller, Dick Hyman, and James P. Johnson — to which the Grammy-nominated Ms. Feather has put original lyrics . . . to be sung to the accompaniment of Stephanie’s romping piano. For more information about this group, visit here.
And as our friend Hal Smith writes, Nouveau Stride will make its debut at San Diego in a multi-media presentation: “The show includes a ‘piano cam’ (enabling the entire audience to watch Stephanie’s flying fingers) and Lorraine’s lyrics projected onto a screen. Also included is a “soundie” of Fats Waller (the soundie was the pre-MTV version of a music video) and an award-winning stride cartoon produced by Lorraine in 2009.”
And guests at the San Diego Thanksgiving Jazz Festival can dine on traditional holiday fare on Thursday night . . .
We savor the rituals . . .
but one can always invigorate the familiar with a new tradition.
May your happiness increase.
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