True Blue Jazz “Brings It” in Festival Year 9
The 9th Anniversary year comes to life once again across the heart of downtown Rehoboth Beach in eight local restaurant/bars along with the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel as principle Headliner Showroom. And for the first time ever, taking a giant leap for REAL Jazz and landing in four newly-anointed True Blue Jazz Sponsor Venues all around Lewes, Delaware.
Featured in 2021, Lewes Location Sponsors are Lefty’s Alley & Eats, Nassau Valley Vineyards Winery, Bramble & Brine at The Buttery, and Bethany Blues. Co-Founder and Producer Eddie Sherman explained, “Downtown Rehoboth Beach has been, and continues to be, the epicenter of our drive to bring the meaning of ‘community’ back to Jazz Week in Rehoboth Beach. After eight years with that as a focus of True Blue Jazz, and the evolution of business and life beyond Rehoboth Midway, we had great interest in enveloping the Lewes community into our True Blue Jazz Festival.”
Peggy Raley, Artistic Director/Co-Founder and Producer, added, “Over this past year, True Blue Jazz really broadened our reach and service to the jazz community. Celebrating International Jazz Day as representing participants for the fifth year with two days of live and streaming concert events was one facet of our work to make jazz available to Cape Region audiences. The free Youth Jazz events like the Boysie Lowrey Living Jazz Residency Concert and the Delaware High School Jazz Fest, both held at Nassau Valley Winery, are other ways we have been putting Real Jazz at the forefront of life for folks here in coastal Delaware.”
Add to that, the success of their ongoing monthly Jazz Series, 1st Wednesdays at The Pines, in downtown Rehoboth Beach. The series has proven to be highly anticipated, with its own elite list of business community sponsors like Pat Coluzzi of Sotheby’s, Ashton Pools, and the Lee Ann Wilkinson Realty Group.
It is that kind of year-round activity and effort that brought recognition to True Blue Jazz Festival this past April at The Clifford Brown International Jazz Day Awards Program. There, Festival Producers Eddie Sherman and Peggy Raley received an award honoring them, and True Blue Jazz, as the “2021 Top Jazz Presenters of the Year.”
And the beat goes on, as the 9th Anniversary True Blue Jazz Festival truly does “Bring It” at this year’s October 13-17 festival, with a string of stellar jazz acts ranging from international performing/recording star and alto sax legend Bobby Watson, to virtuoso entertainer, trumpet star and vocalist Benny Benack III, joined by special guest vocalist and song stylist Cyrille Aimée. All to be seen at The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel on October 15 and 16, in two shows each night, at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Tickets for the two headliner show nights, along with ticketing for the six-hour Big Band Jazz Marathon at the Rehoboth Beach Firehouse on Saturday afternoon from noon till 6:00 p.m., are available on the website (truebluejazz.org) under the Tickets tab. All proceeds from the Firehouse Big Band Marathon are donated by True Blue Jazz to Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company.
True Blue Jazz Festival has 40+ free and ticketed shows this year. Most events listed are free to the public, unless otherwise indicated. To find out what’s happening, when, and where, just visit the website and click on the Local & Live tab to check out all the Rehoboth and Lewes venues and the Tickets tab for True Blue Jazz Ticketed Events: truebluejazz.org. ▼