Tix on sale for the Inland Empire Jazz Festival

Tickets went on sale yesterday for the Inland Empire Jazz Festival, which will be held on August 22, 23 and 24 in Cucamonga-Guasti regional park. The fesitivies will include family activities and feature the likes of Bobby Lyle, Tierra, Mark Wood, Elements, Tim Bowman and more.

All in all, the music will span New Orleans, jazz fusion, free funk and jazz pel.

The first day will offer most of the family activities and will be a special "Celebrate Community Day," catering especially to people with developmental disabilities. Advance tickets for the Saturday and Sunday, the 23rd and 24th, are $35 each, while tickets for Friday only costs $5.

For more information about the festival go to www.iejazz.com or call (877) 9-IEJAZZ.

Chevy Chase hosts Newport

Chevy Chase will host the Newport Jazz Festival, which will run from the 8th of August to the 10th, for the second year in a row. Listen for Chase randomly saying something rude about Jane Curtain at the festival's main stage in Fort Adams State Park.

Chase's relationship to jazz is actually a bit deepr than you might think. Both a drummer and pianist, he played the skins in a college jazz band with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, and actually made such inroads as a performer and fan at New York jazz clubs that Miles Davis once asked him to sit in for a night in place of Davis's drummer Tony Williams.

Headliners for the Festival are Aretha Franklin, Sonny Rollins and Herbie Hancock. For more info on the festival, click here.

Litchfield Jazzfest on Aug. 1-3

The 13th Litchfield Jazz Festival starts on August 1st at the Goshen Fairgrounds in Litchfield, CT. Major performers this year include Paquito D'Rivera with the Zaccai Curtis Trio, Bebe Neuwirth, and the Winard Harper Sextet.

Besides the sets of the main performers, the festival kicks off with a Friends of the Festival Gala at the Winvian Resort & Spa and an afterparty and open jam session at the Heritage Hotel in nearby Southbury immediately following Conrad Herwig's headlining set.

There are several classes of tickets for the festival, starting with single-day lawn seat passes ($35 each), then moving up to single-day tent passes (each of which comes with a chair, and costs $55 ), a Friends of the Festival pass ($155) and Best Friends pass ($350). The main difference between the "Friends" passes is that the regular Friends pass includes the Gala, up-front concert seating and complimentary VIP parking for Friday night, while the Best Friends option also includes free parking all weekend and a special gift.