True Blue Jazz Festival sizzles with 2019 lineup

True Blue Jazz Festival will bring its high caliber of artists to the stage at Boardwalk Plaza Hotel’s True Blue Jazz Showroom in Rehoboth Beach Oct. 17-19. 

“We’ve had great fortune this year to gather three of the finest jazz headliner acts working today for our seventh annual festival,” said Peggy Raley, producer and artistic director. “Purity is a word we keep coming to in describing this wonderful array of jazz artists that you will find appearing on our True Blue Jazz Stage in The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel and in the many sponsor venues in our True Blue Jazz network of downtown Rehoboth Beach Partners.”

“The showroom that we’ve been able to create there with the help of the folks at the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel is a real sweet spot for our jazz festival major artist shows,” said Eddie Sherman, festival producer. “The jazz lineup in our Boardwalk Plaza Room can’t be topped.”

The festival gets underway at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17, when The Fred Hughes Trio, the culmination of talent, technique and taste, will perform with special guests Peter and Will Anderson, jazz saxophone and clarinet sensations. The Anderson brothers will also conduct a masterclass workshop for Cape Henlopen High School Jazz Band students earlier that day.

Kat Edmonson comes to True Blue Jazz Fest at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18. Crisscrossing the nation to perform her original songs from her album “Old Fashioned Gal,” Edmonson will dazzle the audience with songs that sound as if they’d been pulled from a 1940s time capsule.

True Blue Jazz will showcase The Bill Charlap Trio at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19. Charlap is recognized as having a strong connection with the legendary composers and lyricists of the American Jazz Standards. A Grammy winner, Charlap is a jazz pianist with impeccable taste, exquisite touch at the keyboard, and great respect for those who crafted these incredible songs. 

Partnering venues in downtown Rehoboth Beach will also present top-notch shows for the True Blue Jazz Festival. 

The Pines joins True Blue Jazz with shows Oct. 16-20. The restaurant will feature free live jazz from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. nightly at the Top of the Pines, the restaurant’s cool new upstairs lounge.  The Pines will host the True Blue Jazz Brunch Bash & Closing Party on Sunday, Oct. 20 with The Eddie Sherman Show featuring Peggy Raley with special guest artists Cody Leaves on tenor sax and Gerald Chavis on trumpet. Eddie and Peggy will treat their closing party crowd to two shows during two brunch seatings at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tickets are available at truebluejazz.org or at the door. Brunch service sold separately by The Pines. 

Shorebreak Lodge, located in the ocean block of Wilmington Avenue, comes on board for 2019 True Blue Jazz Festival with the incomparable Jeff Knoettner at the piano on Thursday, Oct. 17. From Blues Alley to Birdland, and all around the Delaware Valley, Knoettner is talent and taste at the keys.

The famously fun Afternoon Jazz Jam will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the patio of the Avenue Inn and Blue Hen Restaurant on Wilmington Avenue.  The free event will feature an array of great jazz throughout the festival.

True Blue Jazz brings it, supper style, with two great Rehoboth Beach restaurant venues that will feature specially selected performances to complement dining experiences at La Fable Thursday, Oct. 17, and Houston White Co. (Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18 and 19) with vocalist Keli Vale and jazz guitarist Nick Bucci. Show times are 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Two Smoking’ Hot Firehouse shows will light up jazz fest Saturday, Oct. 19. Things get started from noon to 6 p.m. with Greg Hatza ORGANization. Hold onto your hats for the Evening Jazz Party at 7:30 p.m., featuring Shades of Blue and The Joe Baione Trio. Tickets sold at the door and at www.truebluejazz.org.