2013 Jazz Port Townsend is nearly upon us. Nearly 250 musicians from around the country will live, learn and play with some of the finest jazz artists out there. Starting on Friday, we hit the lights and these artists take to the stage for mainstage performances in Fort Worden State Park’s 1200-seat McCurdy Pavilion, as well as  “Jazz in the Clubs” in  intimate venues in downtown Port Townsend.

• Save money and see more jazz by purchasing Jazz Port Townsend ticket packages.
  

The Festival’s Grammy-winning Artistic Director John Clayton has hand picked the performers for Jazz Port Townsend, and a highlight is seeing musicians performing in combos and bands only found in Port Townsend.

Our first mainstage show will take place on Friday, July 26, 2013 at 7:30pm and features ensembles led by Bria Skonberg and Anat Cohen.

Friday, July 26, 2013
Friday Evening Concert
7:30 pm; McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved Seating $20/29/42; 18 & under free

Bria Skonberg Sextet with special guest Wycliffe Gordon

• Bria Skonberg, trumpet
• Wycliffe Gordon, trombone
• Randy Halberstadt, piano
• Dan Balmer, guitar
• Rodney Whitaker, bass
• Matt Wilson, Drums

Anat Cohen Quartet

• Anat Cohen, clarinet
• Dawn Clement, piano
• Chuck Deardorf, bass
• Jeff Hamilton, drums

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BRIA SKONBERG
At age 25, jazz trumpeter and vocalist Bria Skonberg has been performing on stage for over 20 years. Originally from Chilliwack, she now resides in Vancouver, BC, where she has completed a Degree in Jazz Performance from Capilano University. Since getting into jazz ten years ago she has been featured as a bandleader and guest artist all over North America, Europe, China and Japan.

In July of 2009 she was one of four performers in a Young Artists’ Showcase at the Jazz a Juan Festival in Antibes, France. She has been the recipient of the CBC Jazz Award of Merit (2006), and the Kobe Jazz Street Friendship Award in 2007. Early in 2008 she was a guest on Riverwalk Jazz with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, and is often a featured performer with Canadian Icon Dal Richards in Vancouver.

ANAT COHEN
Clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Anat has been voted Clarinetist of the Year six years in a row by the Jazz Journalists Association, as well as 2012’s Multi-Reeds Player of the Year. That’s not to mention her topping of critics and readers polls in DownBeat magazine several years running.

Anat has toured the world with her quartet, headlining at the Newport, Umbria, SF Jazz and North Sea jazz festivals as well as at such hallowed clubs as New York’s Village Vanguard. In September 2012, Anzic Records released her sixth album as a bandleader, Claroscuro.The album ranges from buoyant dances to darkly lyrical ballads, drawing inspiration from New Orleans and New York, Africa and Brazil. In its ebullient, irresistible variety, Claroscuro encapsulates the description Jazz Police offered of Anat in full flight: “She becomes a singer, a poet, a mad scientist, laughing – musically – with the delight of reaching that new place, that new feeling, with each chorus.”