Charlie Christian Jazz Festival??
Apr 12th, 2008 by admin
After posting about the induction of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt to the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Nesuhi Ertegun Hall of Fame I came across a story on The Oklahoman NewsOK.com website about a Charlie Christian International Jazz Festival last year. I had never heard of this festival before and I quickly went to the website to check it out. Unfortunately, there was very little information on the site and no mention if there was going to be a 2008 Festival. Does anyone know if there will be a 2008 version? Apparently, last years Festival was the 22nd of its kind. Has anyone ever attended the CCIJF? I’d love to hear more about it. If you have any info please feel free leave a comment. Thanks all.
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Yes! OK City has an excellent outdoor venue in the Bricktown area. The Festival last year (2007) was for the most part held at the Boathouse Pavillion. We traveled to OK City on the last day (Sunday) of the Festival to see The Yellow Jackets. Unfortunately, just one hour before the Yellow Jackets were to take the main stage, a powerful thunderstorm suddenly developed (seemingly out of nowhere) and literally blew away the main stage. The day was not a total loss however because the local bands represented there earlier in the day were incredibly talented. Also the endless chain of parks along the river are interconnected with a river walking path. The Boathouse is actually a Boathouse allowing you to rent canoes and paddle boats if you tire of listening to homespun jazz throughout the day.
Hats off to OK City for developing the Riverfront to be so people friendly. I would certainly attend another Jazz Fest this year and have been watching online for any announcements.
Hi Bill and thanks for your comments on the OK City Jazz Festival. It’s unfortunate that you did not get to see The Yellow Jackets but at least you had a good time anyway. I saw The Yellow Jackets with Mike Stern at last year’s Montreal Jazz Festival and as you can probably imagine, it was a great show. And since I am a fan of both, it was doubly great…:) Thanks for taking the time to drop the JGL Blog Bill and take care.
The 2008 version of the CCIJF (which is now being renamed and expanded as the Charlie Christian International Music Festival) will be July 30 - August 2 in Oklahoma City. I attended one of the concerts at Jazz At Lincoln Center and it was outstanding, by the way. OKC had literature and descriptions onsite. The main concert is going to be August 1 (indoors, which from the previous post sounds like a good idea) at the Cox Convention Center. No mention yet of the talent lineup.