Looking for Fun This Weekend? Try the San Jose Jazz Festival
The South Bay comes alive this weekend with the sights and sounds of the one truly American art form: jazz! Held in the center of San Jose, this year’s jazz festival features headliners Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in a tribute to Cab Calloway performing on the main stage (in front of the Fairmont Hotel) tonight at 8:30 PM, and Manhattan Transfer, closing the festival on the main stage at 6 PM Sunday.
Other “don’t miss” performers include the Gail Dobson Latin Sextet performing on the Smith Dobson memorial stage at noon tomorrow – featuring 3 generations of talent from this amazing Bay Area family, David Sandborn, the Silicon Valley’s own Full Spectrum Jazz Orchestra(a big band made of mostly performers who are high tech professionals), and the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet.
On the Future of Jazz stage – you can catch jazz bands from area high schools and colleges too. Highlights include The Gail Dobson Youth in Jazz performance at 3 PM tomorrow (featuring my two daughters among other talented children!), and the Santa Clara University Jazz Combo at 5 PM tomorrow.
Other events include a Club Crawl of local restaurants/clubs, with many outstanding local talented groups performing in tandem as well as master classes and jam sessions to be held throughout the area. The festival food is outstanding at this event, and the typical festival booths have a wide array of interesting clothing and crafts.
Admission is $10 for adults and free for children under 11. This festival gets VERY crowded and parking is hard to find, so I suggest parking somewhere near the Light Rail and riding in.
