Iowa City Jazz Festival©Andrea Canter

Just about anywhere you live in the Midwest, you are less than a day away from one of the nation’s best-kept cultural secrets—the Iowa City Jazz Festival. Taking place annually over the first weekend of July, the Iowa City Jazz Festival celebrates its 17th on July 3-5. Held on the famed (and shaded!) “Pentacrest” of the University of Iowa, this festival has grown in stature and musical offerings to be one of the best of the free outdoor festivals in the nation, and is now a major component of the Iowa City Summer of the Arts program.  

With major sponsorship from Toyota-Scion of Iowa City, headliners this year represent one of the strongest line-ups in festival history, including David Sanchez, Trombone Shorty, Lionel Loueke, Chris Potter’s Underground, the Bill Frisell Quartet, and the Dave Holland Quintet. Interspersed among the national headliners will be the best of local and regional jazz, as well as youth and college band stages promoting the future of jazz in Iowa and beyond. Jams at the nearby Sheraton Hotel and area music bars ensure many hours of jazz for those who just can not get enough. Concessions across from the Pentacrest will keep the crowds fueled throughout the weekend, and feature such nonstandard Iowa fare as gourmet delights from the cuisines of India, Africa, Greece and Asia, along with “state fair” staples like corn dogs and ice cream.   

Hot Club of Detroit

 The Lansing JazzFest is back for its fifteenth year as an annual FREE community music festival August 7th and 8th on the streets of beautiful, historic Old Town Lansing! Big names, big stages and big crowds will come together at this premiere gathering of jazz artists and the people who appreciate them from around Lansing, Michigan, and the Midwest.

Set against the back drop of a unique shopping district and an inviting atmosphere, this year’s line-up hosts a wide variety of creative jazz stylings. Smooth jazz, fusion, be-bop and big band will take turns around quartets and trios to offer the Lansing JazzFest crowd a fantastic weekend of music.

Oliver Jones©Joe Tuitt

The 30th Montreal Jazz Festival will be held from June 30 to July 12, 2009.  Officially named "Le Festival International de Jazz de Montreal," it is one of the largest and most respected music festivals in the world.   

The Festival always features an amazing array of music, from homegrown jazz to jazz-influenced sounds from all over the world, and this year is no exception. Whether you want to see big acts or small, renowned or up-and-coming artists, salsa, New Orleans jazz, hip hop, electro-jazz, soul, fusion, bossa nova, or blues, from about noon until past midnight every day, there will be something for almost every musical taste.  One of the greatest things about the Festival is that you can spend as little or as much as your budget will allow, since all of the outdoor venues are free. 

St Paul Mayor Chris Coleman with Jon Weber at the 2007 TCJF©Andrea Canter

The jazz festival that almost wasn't has announced an exciting lineup for its 2009 edition. The Twin Cities Jazz Festival was so hard pressed to secure adequate sponsorship money for its 11th annual event that organizers were prepared to cancel the event in 2009 and attempt to return in 2010. Through eleventh-hour efforts and the generosity of sponsors that did not want to see this Twin Cities tradition falter, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival will return on June 18, 19 & 20, 2009. Although the Festival will cover fewer days than its usual two-week run, the lineup promises to make it one of the most potent in the event’s history. New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint headlines the Friday, June 19 free concert in Mears Park in downtown St. Paul. The Mears Park lineup on Saturday, June 20, includes 24-year-old bass and vocal sensation Esperanza Spalding and the Twin Cities-based group, The New Standards.