Awaiting the 43rd-Montreux Jazz Festival
Awaiting the 43rd-Montreux Jazz Festival
One of the best music shows in Europe, the Montreux Jazz Festival will be starting on July 3rd, 
extending through July 18th.
Offering two full weeks of concerts and renowned musicians, the festival will not only cover jazz, but many associated music genres as well.
This year’s Jazz Festival is the 43rd date in its history, since the first 3-day festival held in 1967.
Amongst many talented performers, 2009 artists include Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Beck, blues icon B.B. King, Herbie Hancock, Baaba Maal, The Dave Mathews Band, the John Scofield Piety Street Band, Steve Winwood and bass prodigy Victor Wooten.
Tickets for the Montreux Jazz Festival are for sale, with ticket prices ranging from 65CFH to over 250CFH. The Festival will be holding several free concerts, so take a look at the official program for a list of free shows and guest appearances.
If you are planning on visiting Montreux for this year’s festival, you’ll be happy to know that a partnership with CFF allows you to get a 20% discount on train fares to the festival with your concert tickets. If you are leaving the festival after dark, there are nightly-trains available that will make your late travelling a breeze.
For more information, visit the Montreux Jazz Festival website here.
Eric Clapton 2009 Confirmed Tour Dates
The musician is performing in Japan, with Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, and U.S.A to follow in his upcoming schedule.
Three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, CBE and 18-time Grammy Award-winner Eric Clapton simply is a timeless icon of music history.
Known both for being a former member of great bands such as The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith and Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, as well as for his remarkable solo guitar work and collaborations, Clapton has played with stars like The Beatles, Roger Waters, Dire Straits and Joe Cocker, amongst many.
Clapton’s 2009 World Tour began this February in Japan, and it is currently 3 dates into the tour. Featuring special edition tickets due to Clapton’s 35th anniversary since his debut in Japan in 1974, the musician will be playing in Tokyo on February 18th and 19th, traveling to Saitama and Budokan for 2 shows with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck on the 21st and 22nd, only to return to Tokyo on the 24th for 3 more solo performances.
Along with Clapton, this year’s shows will feature musicians Doyle Bramhall II on guitar, Chris Stainton on keyboards, Willie Weeks on bass, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums and Sharon White & Michelle John on backing vocals as his supporting band.
After closing in Japan, Eric Clapton and his group will be then hitting New Zealand’s Vector Arena on March 4th, moving on to Australia from the 7th to the 14th of that month.
The Australian venues Clapton will be playing at include the Hunter Valley Hope Estate Winery (07/03), the Sydney Entertainment Centre (08/03) and Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (11/03).
The songwriter will be taking a brief break before resuming his tour in Dublin’s O2 Arena, in Ireland, on May 11th, then moving on to the UK for two consecutive weeks of performances.
The UK Tour opening show will take place in Liverpool’s Echo Arena on May 13th, followed by one performance at the MEN Arena in Manchester on the 14th, and sixteen consecutive shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London from the 16th to 31st of May.
Along for the ride will be 1990’s blues group the Arc Angels (featuring Charlie Sexton) who will be presenting the supporting act for each of Clapton’s concerts in the UK.
Following the UK tour, Clapton will be stopping by 15 cities in the U.S.A. starting June 10th with former band mate and fellow guitarist Steve Windwood. Clapton and Windwood had formed the group Blind Faith in 1969 after Cream’s dissolution in 1968. Following the opening act in East Rutherford on June 10th, the performers will be moving down to Philadelphia, PA (12/06), Washington, DC (13/06), Columbus, OH (15/06), Chicago, IL (17/06); St. Paul, MN (18/06), Omaha, NE (20/06), Denver, CO (21/06), Dallas, TX (23/06), Houston, TX (24/06), Glendale, AZ (26/06), Las Vegas, NV (27/06), Oakland, CA (29/06) and Los Angeles, CA (30/06).
Clapton was born in Ripley in Surrey, England on 1945 and got his first guitar in 1960. In more than 45 years of musicianship, the artist has recorded many hits, both in his former bands as in his solo work. Deemed one of Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Guitarists of All Time’ and the only musician to be a triple Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Eric Clapton is one the most legendary, iconic and influential guitarists still active today.
