The Gent Jazz Festival (July7-July18) announces more names for the 2010 edition with Ornette Coleman, Pat Metheny Group, Gilberto Gil, Toots Thielemans, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Mariza, Kurt Elling, The Cinematic Orchestra en Stanley Clarke feat. Hiromi.

Also Christian Mendoza Group, Greg Houben Trio, Pierre Vaiana & Salvatore Bonafede feat. Manolo Cabras, Jungle Boldie will perform at the festival. Earlier the festival had already announced names like Norah Jones, Daniel Lanois Black Dub and Chick Corea Freedom Band.  Chronological survey of the program enclosed

Thursday July 8 the SABAM Jazz Awards will be presented at the Gent Jazz Festival. The winner in the category Confirmed Artist receives 10.000 Euro. In the category Young Talent, in collaboration with Jeugd & Muziek the winner will receive 5.000 Euro. The intention of this sum is to be used as a financial support for musical projects or to offer a push forward for the expansion of a future career of the musician. Sabam also hands out the Muse of Sabam. This is an additional award that is given to a Belgian jazz personality for his reputation and/or merits or because the artist has taken some successful actions to support the jazz scene.

Also this year the Gent Jazz Festival will organize jam sessions in the evening in collaboration with NH Hoteles. These jam sessions will take place each festival day in the medieval Trova basement of the NH Hotel Gent Belfort and begin at 23h30.  Entrance for free.

The Music competition ‘Young Jazz talent’, an initiative in collaboration with brewery Duvel-Moortgat will take place at the entrance of the Bijloke during the GJF period. The same selected groups will also perform a second time during the Ghent Festivities (July17-July 26).

Tickets cost 29 euros per evening (excl. booking costs), except for those of July 7 (concert day with Norah Jones) which cost 42 euros (excl. booking costs). A Three-Day Pass costs 73 euros (excl. booking costs). Tickets are available as of today. Tickets can be booked via www.gentjazz.com, or at FNAC. Just as last year, the last festival weekend coincides with the opening weekend of the Ghent Festivities.

Wed Mar 31 Boulder Weekly Films

All tickets are part of Red Rocks package and available through STS9 store

The Gent Jazz Festival (07.07-18.07.2010) announces the first names for the 2010 edition: Norah Jones, Daniel Lanois Black Dub feat. Trixie Whitley & Brian Blade, Joe Bonamassa, Chick Corea Freedom band, Vijay Iyer Trio, De Beren Gieren and a homage to Django Reinhardt.

The Gent Jazz Festival begins on July 7 this year with a Special Night featuring none other than Norah Jones. The American singer presents her last album The Fall. Further that day also De Beren Gieren as the winners of the Young Jazz Talent Ghent competition 2009 and DjanGo! 100 Years Django Reinhardt A Tribute by De Cauter Family who will also release an album on the Belgian W.E.R.F.-Label soon.

Friday July 9 Chick Corea is the main act with his Freedom Band with besides Chick Corea himself also Kenny Garret, Christain McBride and Roy Haynes. Earlier that day also piano talent Vijay Iyer with his Trio.

On the last day of the festival, July 18, we find blues wonder Joe Bonamassa on the programme and Daniel Lanois with his Black Dub project is the closing act of the festival together with Trixie Whitley & Brian Blade.

Info & tickets:www.gentjazz.com

Tickets cost 29 euros per evening (excl. booking costs), except for those of July 7 (concert day with Norah Jones) which cost 42 euros (excl. booking costs). A Three-Day Pass costs 73 euros (excl. booking costs). Tickets are available as of today. Tickets can be booked via www.gentjazz.com, or at FNAC. Just as last year, the last festival weekend coincides with the opening weekend of the Ghent Festivities.

The Mother Hips release their SXSW performance schedule and a slew of spring dates, including the (((folkYEAH!))) presentation of the second annual Mother Hips Family Hipnic at the Fernwood Resort in breathtaking Big Sur, California on April 30 & May 1, 2010.

This year’s Family Hipnic marks its second installment, and is hosted again by (((folkYEAH!))) & The Mother Hips. The festival’s debut proved it an instant underground favorite. Additional artists set to perform in 2010 include Jackie Greene, Little Wings, Dawes, Neal Casal (The Cardinals), Farmer Dave Scher (Beachwood Sparks, All Night Radio), Elisa Randazzo (The Red Krayola), Parson Red Heads, Nicki Bluhm, Red Cortez, and Sparrow's Gate. Info available at www.folkyeah.com.

The Mother Hips have also announced their SXSW performance schedule, which includes the Hear Ya Day Party, the Monterey International Showcase, and others (full SXSW schedule below).

The Hips are touring nationally (see dates below) behind their critically-acclaimed new studio album 'Pacific Dust' which has garnered rave reviews from the likes of MOJO Magazine (4 Star review), while SF Chronicle & Relix have heralded the album as one of the band’s best albums yet, with “classic rock melodicism, inspired flow, and tasty riffs."

Look for two songs from 'Pacific Dust' to be released this week on the popular Rock Band game, as downloadable content to players.

THE MOTHER HIPS AT SXSW
Thursday, March 18th
The Kayceman Treehouse Party
Cheers Shot Bar- (on Roof Deck)
416 East 6th Street
5pm

Thursday, March 18th
Monterey International Showcase
Encore - Outdoor Stage
611 Red River Street
Start Time TBA

Friday, March 19th
Hear Ya Day Party
Beauty Bar (@ the outside stage)
617 East 7th Street
12:40pm

Friday, March 19th
Hole in the Wall / Jimmy Rockit SXSW Day Party
Hole in the Wall
2538 Guadalupe
2:30pm

THE MOTHER HIPS ON TOUR:
March 10 Vail, CO Street Beat
March 11 Paonia, CO Paradise Theater
March 12 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
March 13 Steamboat Springs, CO Ghost Ranch
March 18-19 Austin, TX SXSW
March 26 Chico, CA El Rey Theater
March 27 Crockett, CA Toots Tavern
April 9 Ventura, CA The Lodge
April 10 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House
April 11 Hermosa Beach, CA Brixton
April 15 Bend, OR Mountain Edge Bar
April 16 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
April 17 Hood River, OR River City Saloon
April 30-May1 Big Sur, CA 2nd Annual Mother Hips Family Hipnic Fernwood Resort
May 14 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
May 15 Washington, DC Black Cat
May 28 Moab, UT Desert Rocks Music Festival
June 3 Ozark, AR Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival
June 4 St Louis, MO Old Rock House
June 5 Chicago, IL Schuba's
June 6 Belden Town, CA Bobolink Music Festival
August 7 Darrington, WA Summer Meltdown Festival Whitehorse Mountain Amphitheater

On April 17-18, thousands of communities around the world will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. On the California Central Coast, the community of Santa Barbara, together with regional not-for-profit Community Environmental Council, lays claim to sparking the Earth Day movement forty years ago.

This year, 20,000 will gather for Santa Barbara’s Earth Day 40 Festival (www.SBEarthDay.org) on April 17-18. Under the apropos 2010 theme “Bringing It Home,” the celebration recognizes not only Earth Day’s 40th Birthday, but also the community’s own legacy of environmental stewardship.

For four decades, Santa Barbara has harnessed its mindful community members, innovative leaders, and abundant access to renewable energy resources to help lead the environmental movement. Today, with the ongoing support of the Community Environmental Council and its aggressive “Fossil Free by ’33” initiative, the community continues to serve as a model for how to move an entire region away from fossil fuels.

In 1969, the devastating images of a massive oil spill from an oil platform off Santa Barbara’s coast galvanized California into action and caught the attention of the rest of the nation, including Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day. The resulting swell of outrage and concern gave rise to the first Earth Day in 1970, as well as to the creation of the Community Environmental Council – the largest and most established environmental organization in the region, and the host of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day 40 Festival.

Today, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) is leading a campaign to move Santa Barbara County away from fossil fuels in one generation – Fossil Free by ’33. This bold, regionally driven blueprint seeks to head off a nearly perfect storm of energy-related concerns, including rapidly diminishing oil supplies (“peak oil”), growing concern over our national security because of our dependence on foreign oil, volatile fuel prices, and climate change.

The Fossil Free campaign is particularly timely following the climate talks in Copenhagen last December, in which international leaders noted that more than half of the actions needed to address global warming will be led not by national or international policies, but through local initiatives and leadership.

“Copenhagen will likely be a central theme as communities around the world prepare for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day,” says CEC Assistant Director Sigrid Wright, noting that the collective international Earth Day events are expected to touch over a billion people. “We believe that climate change is the responsibility of every community to address and that Santa Barbara and California are out in front on this issue.”

In downtown Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Earth Day 40 Festival will offer real-world solutions, with participation by approximately 250 emerging green businesses, cutting edge technology vendors, and regional and national environmental organizations. Other features will include:

• a two-day amateur Green Shorts Film Festival,
• the largest known private Green Car Show in the country, and
• a Green Home Pavilion – a re-enactment of a 1,200-square foot home, featuring the latest green construction materials, home décor products, and energy-saving appliances and technologies.

“Earth Day brings us together to celebrate, recharge and focus our energies and resources on ending our dependence on fossil fuels,” says Wright.

“This is a pivotal time in history for the environmental movement because for the first time ever, being free of fossil fuels is actually within reach," says Wright. “The CEC and the community of Santa Barbara are committed to reaching this goal by 2033. The region has unique access to renewable energy resources – particularly the sun, wind and ocean. And, as history has shown, the size of the community – small enough change course with relative speed, yet large enough to matter when those changes are made - makes us poised to lead the charge."