One of Panama's most significant cultural events, the Eighth Annual Panama Jazz Festival will be held on January 10-15, 2011. Already a reference in the global jazz calendar and attracting more than an estimated 100,000 people since its inception, this year's edition is dedicated to Victor "Vitín" Paz, one of the most remarkable musicians in the history of Panamanian popular music.
The 2011 Portland Jazz Festival will be held Friday, February 18 through Sunday, February 27 at venues throughout Portland. The week-long festival will include jazz education and outreach along with a series of concerts all supporting the 2011 theme, Bridges and Boundaries: Jewish & African Americans Playing Jazz Together.
This year's festival theme, Bridges and Boundaries: Jewish & African Americans Playing Jazz Together represents past, present and future collaboration between African Americans and Jewish Americans. "The original idea for this festival came from Nat Henoff's writings about jazz as a meeting place for African and Jewish Americans." said Bill Royston, Artistic Director of the Portland Jazz Festival. "His writings of Steven Bernstein's 'Diaspora Blues' to the odyssey of Willie 'The Lion' Smith were of primary influence. Historically, the music drew people together, and today there is a new wave of Israeli musicians who have moved to New York and elsewhere across the United States."
Voodoo Music Experience takes place October 29-31, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
