Twin Cities Jazz Festival©Andrea Canter

The Twin Cities Jazz Festival will hold its 15th annual event June 27-29 in St. Paul. The beautiful Lowertown urban neighborhood will come alive with a variety of music appealing to a wide range of jazz fans on four stages in and around Mears Park, plus downtown restaurants and clubs. Jazz Fest is again collaborating with Saint Paul Public Libraries to offer three free concerts in three libraries leading up to Jazz Fest. Jazz Fest Executive Director Steve Heckler has assembled an amazing lineup filling all three days of the festival. All schedules as of April 16, 2013 and subject to change.

The 46th annual Eau Claire Jazz Festival, April 5-7, will feature headliners Geoffrey Keezer and Claudio Roditi. The festival is presented by Eau Claire Jazz, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities and music outreach in Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley. Headliner concerts take place at Eau Claire Memorial High School on Friday (7:30 pm) and Saturday (7 pm), featuring Keezer and Roditi with the award-winning UW-EC Jazz Ensemble I, directed by Robert Baca, with additional clinics, master classes, and adjudications taking place throughout the weekend.

Kenny Werner

The 15th Annual Twin Cities Jazz Festival will take place June 27-29 in Mears Park in Saint Paul’s popular Lowertown. The park will be the site of the Main Stage, boasting headliners Kenny Werner, Cyrus Chestnut and Matt Slocum. Additional acts on the Main Stage and the adjacent Sixth Street Stage will showcase the broad range of jazz music and the talents of local as well as national artists. On Saturday afternoon and early evening, the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education will again sponsor the Youth Stage on Prince Street, featuring top student musicians from the metro area.

Claudia Acuña

The 2013 NYC WINTER JAZZFEST ias being held held on January 11th & 12th, 2013 in New York City.  On both nights the festival will take over six venues in the Village, Le Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, Zinc Bar, Bitter End, SubCulture and Bowery Electric.  This marks the ninth year of the annual NYC WINTER JAZZFEST, and the continued mission to showcase top quality jazz to industry professionals, avid jazz fans, and new audiences. Artists include Rudresh Mahanthappa, Lee Konitz, Don Byron,  James Carter, Monty Alexander's "Harlem - Kingston Express", Claudia Acuña, James Carter Organ Trio, Ari Hoenig Group, Nasheet Waits EQUALITY w/ Vijay Iyer, Mark Helias, Logan Richardson, and many nore.

Jason Moran © Andrea Canter

Headliners include Jason Moran, Uri Cane, Dorado Schmitt, Lars Jasson, Ari Hoenig as the Winter Jazz Festival (or in Danish: Vinterjazz) convenes all over Denmark for the 13th time on February 1-17, 2013. Vinterjazz is once more pushing its boundaries further with a record breaking number of concerts totaling approximately 300 concerts all over Denmark. This year's program presents a quite extravagant selection of International and Scandinavian musicians – as well as the finest and most progressive names from the modern Danish jazz scene. 

JoAnna Lombardi (left) and Chris Osborne at the Litchfield Jazz Festival

At the 2012 Litchfield Jazz Festival, two special artists were showcased in the Exhibitor’s Village, Chris Osborne and JoAnna Lombardi. Although their approaches to art are very different, they share a passion for jazz.