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| Bayou's best in Frederiksted by Virgin Voice  St. Croix will host a terrific line-up of musicians from New Orleans during its Blue Bay Jazz Festival November 15 to 18 in the historic town of Frederiksted. Local performers will also heat up the festival stage and restaurants will be transformed into jazz halls. Afternoon and evening concerts include alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr., trumpeter Christian Scott, vocalist Stephanie Jordan and the Jordan Family, pianist Henry Butler, Troy Trombone Shorty Andrews, and The New Orleans Trumpet Summit featuring Kermit Ruffins, James Andrews, Marlon Jordan, Christian Scott and Troy Andrews.This Jazz Fest will also feature local foods, arts and crafts, dance troupes, quelbe musical groups, mocko jumbies and street entertainers. A festival sponsor, WWOZ 90.7 FM, the New Orleans' Jazz and Heritage radio station, will broadcast live from the event. The Blue Bay Jazz Fest is the first four day jazz extravaganza produced by the Frederiksted Economic Development Association. But it's a natural outgrowth for the organization, which has been producing monthly sunset jazz concerts for the past eight years. Festival executive producer, Bridget Cox Dawson, notes that St. Croix was the site of one of the first Caribbean based jazz festival. The St. Croix Jazz & Caribbean Music Festival, which was the brain-child of the late Mario DeChabert. ( That festival, unfortunately, was blown away by Hurricane Marilyn in 1995.) Dawson says many of the major festivals in the Caribbean today have developed as an off-shoot of St. Croix' original jazz fest. It has been said that St. Croix has more jazz fans per square inch than anywhere on the face of the earth. And Dawson says it was a Sunset Jazz fan who was the catalyst for the Blue Bay Jazz Fest. A letter from local jazz fan, Carmelo Rivera, suggested producing a New Orleans themed Sunset Jazz. Dawson says he indicated that St. Croix, and specifically Frederiksted, share so many similarities with New Orleans. The New Orleans music community is tight! They are supportive of one another, and take their musical legacy very much to heart... So much of the vibe and spirit of the city is reminiscent of here, observes Dawson, quoting festival headliner Donald Harrison Jr. who calls his hometown of New Orleans the northern most Caribbean city. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |