35th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration: an overview with Paul Machado

05 Aug 35th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration: an overview with Paul Machado

[click “Play” to hear Paul Machado’s overview of TJC, 2011]

The word “jazz,” originally “jass” was slang for love-making, what you did when you went to brothels at the turn of the 20th century. Then it became the kind of music played in brothels to accompany such activities. For Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado, “jazz” means a certain kind of spontaneous interaction on stage and off, when the chemistry created by music, the mountains, the food and wine, and the people kicks in as it inevitably does every year over the Telluride Jazz Celebration weekend. The 35th annual musical happening featuring classical, mainstream, blues Brazilian, African, Latin and more, takes place this year Friday, August 5 – Sunday, August 7.

The 2011 Guest of Honor is Cuban born saxophonist and clarinetist, composer of jazz and traditional Cuban music Paquito D’Rivera. D’Rivera shares the program with other major talents including Badi Assad, Walter, Roberts & Deitch, Rita Coolidge and Allen Toussaint, March 4th Marching Band, American Idol winner Taylor Hicks and the wall of sound known as Tower of Power.

At its center, the Telluride Jazz Celebration is an aural elixir so yummy it makes your ears smile, but trying to define the word sandwiched between “Telluride” and “Celebration,” both of which we understand perfectly, is like trying to hold on to quicksilver: jazz slips through your fingers as soon as you try hanging on.

For an overview of this year’s event from the horse’s mouth, click the play button and listen to my interview with Paul Machado.