Events

[click "Play" to listen to Larry Coryell's conversation with Susan]

Coryell Six years ago guitar legend Larry Coryell was honored at the 28th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, where he performed with drummer Lenny White and bassist Mark Egan. Coryell returns to the 34th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, August 5 – August 8, to time to honor a friend, former Telluride Jazz Celebration board member Chris Bou, who died in May 2009.


To tribute Bou, Coryell returns with Egan, changing the recipe on his aural elixir just a little bit with two special guests, Paul Wertico replacing White on drums, and saxophonist Karl Denson. The quartet is scheduled to perform Sunday, August 8, 3:40 – 4:50 p.m. on the Toshiko Akiyoshi Town Park Stage.

"Larry has style, awesome technique, a sharp wit and big charisma," said Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado of his friend and supporter.

[click "Play" for Langhorne Slim's interview with Susan]

Slim Langhorne Slim is appearing in concert on Friday, July 30, 8:30 p.m. at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House. The buzz is you want to be there to shake your tail feathers – and say you knew him when.

It's a Dylan thing. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman to a middle class family in Nowhere Special, Minnesota. Brooklyn-based Langhorne Slim was born Sean Scolnick in – and here's the punch line – Langhorne, Pennsylvania. But we all know the line from Shakespeare about a rose. Regardless of his name, the fame of this singer-songwriter-guitarist is being etched in stone. Rolling Stone. "Damn near perfect," said the magazine about Langhorne Slim's third album, Be Set Free, on Kemado Records.
[click "Play" for Susan's interview with Dan Hicks]

Panama_dan_sm Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado likes to push the jazz envelope, often inviting guests whose music, is not, strictly speaking "jazz." That is unless you define jazz as a labyrinth of styles, sounds and rhythms summed up in a one syllable word.

Check the schedule on the first full day of sounds, Friday, August 6. Machado features Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks in the 4 p.m. slot. The hodgepodge of genres Hicks melds into his own signature sound includes outlaw swing, folk, country, Django, blues, rock, and okay, jazz, a brew he himself has been known to describe as "folk jazz." Ok, the hipster is in by a nose.
[click "Play", Jackie talks to Susan]

[click "Play" to hear Jackie Ryan's "Doozy"]

JackieWhiteBlouse-Doozy2thm The sun will shine on the 34th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration – at least when vocalist Jackie Ryan steps onstage.

Jackie Ryan is widely regarded in inner circles of buffs and critics as one of the premier jazz singers out of North America, but one the general public is not well aware of. This despite reviews peppered with superlatives touting her "extravagant" range, both emotional and stylistic, her "sweeping vocal powers" laced with passion, her "savvy" vocalizing, her "magnetic" stage presence.
[click "Play", Rachel Loomis-Lee and Lauren Metzger speak to Susan]

Artopia_sponsors_web Taken from a book of that name written by Sir Thomas More in 1516, "Utopia" defines an ideal society. Like Shangri-La – or Telluride.

The theme of the Ah Haa School for the Arts' 18th annual auction is ARTopia, suggesting an ideal place, the school, within an ideal place, Telluride. Ah Haa is a place where dreams are born and personal epiphanies acquire weight and shape as people of all ages channel their inner Leonardo.

This annual fundraiser is a happening: the high voltage live and silent auctions feature over 200 items of original art, services and trips, all donated by the region’s artists, businesses and supporters of Ah Haa and local celebrities. Former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kruetzmann put his psychedelic stamp on a pair of Wagner Skis. (Talk about gilding the lily.)

Nicole Telluride local Nicole Finger is quiet and self-effacing in person. In successive interviews with this fine artist over the years, Telluride Inside... and Out has never spotted an ounce of hype or self promotion. With one exception: Last year the stunning brunette and Ah Haa School for the Arts board member shook it for all she was worth to sell a dress of an original design for her favorite non-profit.

This year, expect an encore. Nicole Finger has designed another hand-painted dress, the Klimt Dress, which will be on the catwalk at the 18th annual Ah Haa auction, Friday, July 23.

The Klimt Dress, size medium, is hand-painted in layers of acrylic in a perfect replication of Gustav Klimt's famous masterpiece, The Kiss. Woven into the design are 200 hand-stitched Swarovski crystals. It's retail value? Priceless.

Vitals about the auction:

by Elisabeth Gick

[click "Play" for Elisabeth's conversation with Jangchub Chophel]

HHDL-Groups The monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery are returning to Telluride. When they were in town two years ago, they displayed some of their beautiful handmade wares at the Telluride Farmers' Market, conducted a healing ritual at the Ah Haa School, and evoked the vast landscapes of Tibet at the Town Hall lawn in Ophir with the eerie sounds emanating from their throats and longhorns.

This coming Friday and Saturday, July 23/24, the Gaden Shartse Monks plan to teach us aspects of Buddhism and hold a purifying ritual at the Telluride Yoga Center. The weekend activities are topped off Sunday morning, July 25, 10 a.m. to noon, with chanting and music on the terrace of the five-star Wilkinson Public Library.
[click "Play" to listen to Toshiko Akiyoshi's conversation with Susan]

Akiyoshi The 34th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration welcomes Guest of Honor, award-winnning (Downbeat polls, Grammy nominations, etc.) arranger-pianist-bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi.

Manchurian born Akiyoshi began her piano training at  the age of seven. Her career as a jazz pianist was launched in Japan in 1946. Be-bop pianist Akiyoshi made her first U.S. appearance over 50 years ago: in 1956 she appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival before touring top jazz clubs across the country.