#Breckenridge, Colorado.
Grammy award-winning artists of jazz, bluegrass and blues will headline this year’s Breckenridge Music Festival. The 2015 Blue River Series summer lineup includes big-band jazz orchestras, genre-defying Americana, and country and blues music legends. Concerts take place June through August at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge.
“And there’s more to come,” said Marcia Kaufmann, executive director of the Breckenridge Music Festival. “We expect to announce additional acts for the Blue River Series soon. We are committed to offering a wide-range of exceptional music throughout the summer.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Breckenridge Music Festival’s Blue River Series, co-presented with the town of Breckenridge, gets off to an early start with a performance on Monday, June 1, by the critically praised, drummer-less trio The Devil Makes Three. Sourcing blues and throwing in fierce, fingerpicking guitar, a little slide, tenor banjo and rocking upright bass, The Devil Makes Three creates a multi-spanned bridge between musical styles. The band’s sound is garage ragtime, punk-inspired blues, old and new timey without settling upon a particular era and inspired as much by mountain music as by Preservation Hall jazz. Vocal harmonies wind tightly around original songs and breathe life into favorite covers. It all pours forth from a timeless pulse that pulls you to the past, flies you to the future and lands you on the dance floor.
Sunday, July 5, features The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Composed of 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, and The Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988, this big band performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk and many others. Bandleader Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation. A nine-time Grammy-winner, he earned the distinction of being the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical records, an accomplishment he astonishingly repeated in 1984.
On Sunday, July 12, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives will take to the Riverwalk stage. Since starting out singing gospel as a child, a bluegrass stint with Lester Flatt in the ’70s, six years with Johnny Cash in the ’80s and coming up with his smash “hillbilly rock” hits of the ’90s, the four-time Grammy winner, platinum recording artist and Grand Ole Opry star Stuart has showman’s zest for every conceivable flavor of country music. Musicologist Peter North states, “Marty Stuart seems wrapped in his destiny at this point in time, not only as country music’s most notable ambassador-caretaker, but as its main archetypical crusader. He has, without question, evolved into one of the most important roots musicians and visionaries in America.”
An Evening with The Robert Cray Band follows on Thursday, Aug. 13, and with five Grammy awards, 15 nominations, millions of record sales worldwide and thousands of sold-out performances, the rock blues icon is considered one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. Cray has recorded 16 Billboard-charting studio albums and has written or performed with everyone from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, from Bonnie Raitt to John Lee Hooker. Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 at the age of 57, he is one of the youngest living legends to receive the prestigious honor. He released his 17th studio album, “In My Soul,” in spring 2014.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Breckenridge Music Festival presents a diverse range of music, from Festival Orchestra concerts and intimate Tuesday Chamber and Sunday Champagne events to eclectic national touring acts in its Blue River Series. The festival hosts more than 40 professional musicians from around the world who participate in one of the town’s most beloved five-week summer events. The unique event welcomes locals and visitors alike to enjoy classical, jazz, blues, rock and other mixed genres.
Visit www.breckenridgemusicfestival.com to learn more about the Breckenridge Music Festival and to view the most up-to-date information about the Blue River Series.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
