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Bellevue Jazz Festival Is Coming. Get Your Discounted Tickets Now!

We’ve featured the Bellevue Jazz Festival before on this blog and there’s good reason.  It always has a stellar lineup featuring top-notch talent and this year they’ve outdone themselves once again with headlining performances by the legendary Booker T. Jones (of Booker T and the MGs), the Grammy nominated Clayton Brothers Quintet and Downbeat Magazine‘s 2011 Flutist of the Year, Hubert Laws. The festival takes place on May 30 to June 3 but they’re offering an exclusive presale offer giving you an opportunity to get tickets at 30% off the general ticket price, a full week before tickets go on sale to the public. They’re offering this incredible deal until Friday, April 13 so head right over here, enter “Presale” as the discount code and get yours right away because these won’t last long.

Personally, I’m excited for Booker T. Jones, the creator of the Memphis-soul organ sound of countless Stax Records hits. Not only did he play on such soul classics as “Green Onions” but he also played on hits from Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Johnnie Taylor and Bill Withers. Booker T was only seventeen when they released “Green Onions” so he’d already sealed his place in music history before he’d event hit twenty! Not bad. Since then, he’s earned a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement and has played on records by Ray Charles, Neil Young, Drive By Truckers and even, East Bay punk rockers Rancid.

So, not only do you get to see legendary and award winning national performers but you also get more than forty additional performances by regional talent at bars and restaurants throughout downtown Bellevue.  If I were you, I’d clear your calendar for May 30 to June 2 and get your discounted tickets now! If you love great music, you’ll be glad you did. Remember to enter “Presale” in the discount code box!

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International Jazz Day & the 2011 Bellevue Jazz Festival

Hey hep cats! When was the last time you dug out that old Blue Note vinyl, kicked back and enjoyed the sound of sweet horns, laid back bass and brushed snare drums? Well, dig this, Saturday, May 28 is International Jazz Day, so dust off that beret, change the needle on your record player and get groovin’.

International Jazz Day was started in 1991 by musician D. Michael Denny as a way to appreciate and celebrate this distinct musical art form and its history. Jazz has been called the first authentically American musical form. Many feel it was born in New Orleans but Kansas City and Chicago have also laid claim as its birthplace and its produced such American icons as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Jazz was unique in that it blended African and European musical traditions together and while it initially started out as good-time music, it matured during the bebop era of the 50’s and became a sophisticated musical expression with a focus on improvisation and complex arrangements that rivalled those of the greatest classical music composers.
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