FESTIVAL 2024:

Bigger & Better Than Ever!!

As the season opens,  the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation’s Festival 2024 promises a festival filled with an amazing lineup of world class jazz, and dazzling virtuoso musicians.

The immersive 3-day live jazz experience included two evenings; Thursday and Friday, August 22 & 23 at Arrowhead Lake Association’s Tavern Bay Beach Club.

Thursday evening musical performances also included the award-winning special guest performances by the 2024 Blue Jay Jazz Foundation Future Generation Jazz Scholars.

Saturday, August 24 the party moves to Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa for a early afternoon of live jazz.  Experience sensational live jazz under tall pine trees overlooking he beautiful lake. 

Best of all, the 2024 Jazz Festival is for a good cause – Proceeds help provide instruments, equipment and music making opportunities for our local youth.

Aug 22

Southern California Once Again Welcomes

PONCHO SANCHEZ

We kick off the festival on Thursday, August 22, and we kick it hard.

The Grammy winning “King of Latin Jazz,” Poncho Sanchez returns to the stage at Tavern Bay with his fiery stew of jazz, gritty soul, and infectious Latin rhythms. You don’t go to a Poncho Sanchez concert to sit in your seat. You can’t.  His explosive grooves blast you to your feet.

“I invite fans to come have a good time,” Sanchez says. “We’re going to jump, shout and shimmy.”

SPEAKEASY BAND

Shannon Bizzy, Vocal , Steve Alaniz, Saxophone, Tom Fernandes, Guitar,
Baba Elefante, Bass, David Hitchings, Drums

Aug 23

World Renowned Guitarist

LEE RITENOUR

For Lee Ritenour, there aren’t many ‘firsts’ left to achieve. During his dazzling five-decade career, the fabled LA guitarist has taken his music to the outer limits, alighting on every genre and occupying every position in the rock ‘n’ roll firmament.

He’s been an enfant terrible of ’70s fusion, a crossover star of the ’80s pop chart, an honorary exponent of Brazilian jazz, and the fingers behind ’90s supergroup, Fourplay.

Ritenour’s accolades include: 45 albums, Grammy award winner, plus 16 Grammy nominations, Alumnus of the year at USC, Los Angeles’ Jazz Society Honoree (2019), plus thousands of sessions with legends such as Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, B.B. King, Tony Bennett, among others.

LEE RITENOUR & FRIENDS

On stage with Lee will be…George Whitty, keyboard, Wesley Ritenour, drums, and Melvin Davis, bass

GEORGE WHITTY

www.musicgwhitty.com | |Watch video.

Grammy-award winning keyboardist George Whitty has spent 30 years playing on the road with the Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Chaka Khan, Sadao Watanabe, and a dozen others, and his resume as a session musician and producer includes some of the best-selling records of all time: Santana’s “Supernatural” (with Dave Matthews), Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You” and “These are Special Times”, and more than 300 other CDs.

As a producer/keyboardist, his Grammy-winning streak began with Chaka Khan’s “The Woman I Am” in 1992 and extends through 3 award-winning releases with the Brecker Brothers, most recently Randy Brecker’s “34th and Lex”, 2004’s Grammy-winner for Contemporary Jazz Record of the Year.

Aug 24

Grammy-winning singer, pianist and composer

JOHN PROULX

John Proulx, a Grammy-winning singer, pianist, composer and music educator has a smooth and velvety style that is reminiscent of bebop sensation Chet Baker.

Proulx will be joined by Val Geason, a former Raylette who toured for years with the extraordinary Ray Charles. “MzVal,” as she’s known, is a golden-voiced southern siren whose smoldering vocals bring to mind Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn and Nina Simone.

LIVE STREAM THIS CONCERT ON AUGUST 24 at 6pm

Click on the video below on August 24th at 6pm to start the live stream of this concert.

Val Geason

Award winning vocalist, former Ray Charles Raylette.

Judd Pillot

Emmy Award winning producer, writer director TV and film

BLUE JAY JAZZ FOUNDATION

2024 FUTURE GENERATION JAZZ SCHOLARS

Major Sponsors

Supporters & Donors

Arrowhead Lake Association, Yamaha, Mountain News, Bill and Dinah Ruch Family Foundation, Lake Arrowhead Resort & Spa, Goodwin & Son’s Market, Lake Arrowhead Country Club, Rene Lagler, Wallace P. Brithinee, Alpine Mountaineer, Twin Peaks Printing, The Lake House, Wildflowers at the Lake, Premier Properties & Arrowhead Rental Agency, Jensen’s Finest Foods, Lindsay Wagner, Music & Arts Center, Wheeler Steffen Sotheby’s International Realty, San Bernardino County Supervisor, Dawn Rowe, Women’s Club of Lake Arrowhead, Four Seasons Landscape & Garden Center, Mary Dippell, Matthew Kallis & Friends of Lake Arrowhead Mountain Communities (FLAMC), KW Champions, Rim of the World School District, Lake Arrowhead Rotary, Prime Properties, Jeff Grotewold – Carpet Station, RR Class Act Entertainment, LuluBelle’s Coffee House & Bakery.

Support the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation

We know times are challenging, and we are grateful to each of you for sticking by us. Our education programs provide annual jazz education scholarships, awards, instrument lending and live performance opportunities for students and other young people in the San Bernardino Mountain communities. We also believe that festivals in general, and the Blue Jay Jazz Festival specifically, are an incredible gathering of community around amazing music – it brings joy to our lives, and solace to our souls.

Donate Today

We ask you to consider supporting
the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation today
with a donation – so we can bring live
music to you now and for years to come.

Stay up to date with our Newsletter

Donate

Blue Jay Jazz Foundation

P.O. Box 3334
Blue Jay, CA 92317

info@bluejayjazz.org
501c3 • Federal ID/EIN # 20-4934987