San Jose Jazz Festival Lineup Announced

I may have to make it over Pacheco Pass this year for the San Jose Jazz Festival. Hank Jones, Jason Moran, and company make for a pretty good lineup, and best of all, it's FREE!

Read the full press release here:

World's Largest Free Jazz Festival to Feature Hank Jones, Eliane Elias, Eddie Palmieri, Ernestine Anderson, Soulive, Poncho Sanchez, the Bad Plus, Karrin Allyson, Jason Moran and More

The San Jose Jazz Society (www.sanjosejazz.org) today announced headliners for the 16th Annual Comcast San Jose Jazz Festival, presented by Southwest Airlines. The free Festival, August 11-14, 2005, will feature scores of premiere jazz artists on nine stages in downtown San Jose, Calif. With more than 165,000 people expected to attend the four-day event, the San Jose Jazz Festival is the largest free jazz festival in the world.

"This year's Jazz Festival promises to have all of the traditional aspects people know and love, as well as some great new events," said Steve Saperstein, general director of the San Jose Jazz Society. "We have an amazing lineup of top jazz performers in all jazz styles. This year, we are very excited about the after-hours Jazz Beyond stage, guaranteed to keep people up with a new and unique fusion of music, visual art and technology."

The Festival features a diverse lineup of jazz luminaries, including top Latin pianist Eddie Palmieri, percussionist Poncho Sanchez and the Latin Band, the buzzworthy and innovative trio The Bad Plus, cutting-edge pianist Jason Moran, legendary vocalist Ernestine Anderson and much more. This year's lineup also includes two NEA Jazz Masters, pianist Hank Jones and drummer Louie Bellson.

This year marks the opening of a new attraction at the Jazz Festival, the "Jazz Beyond" stage, made possible by generous support from the James Irvine Foundation. Performances will be from 8:30 pm to 2:00 am on Friday, August 12, and Saturday, August 13. At Jazz Beyond, the frontiers of jazz will be explored by artists who push boundaries, using both traditional live instrumentation and electronic sampling, DJ turntables, looping and other effects.