Budding jazz musicians can take their instruments for an after-concert jam session.
Aside from Ellington, the musicians who came for three days of concerts, jam sessions, and workshops included Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Mary Lou Williams, and Willie (the Lion) Smith.
The festival features both jazz and blues musical performances as well as jazz educational clinics taught by professional musicians appearing in the festival and post-concert jam sessions at local venues which bring headliners and local artists together.
AS Mo Menzel sees it, those who attend the monthly concert and jam session at her violin shop here can be divided into two groups: pickers and grinners.
There was a lot of remembering like this going on Monday night as the school, now the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts on Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, brought together 37 celebrated jazz alumni and friends for a reunion/benefit concert and jam session to honor Mr. DiCioccio, who went on to lead the jazz program at the school for the next two decades.
Downstairs, the long brick-vaulted basement is a ready-made concert area for the nightly rock concerts and jam sessions.
Concerts and jam sessions feature groups from the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain and the United States.
For daily listings of concerts and jam sessions in Paris and other cities around the world, jazz fans can check out the Web site jazzvalley.com.com
The band was originally named Mookie Blaylock, after a professional basketball player, but settled on the words pearl and jam separately the latter reportedly after seeing musician Neil Young in concert and admiring his "jam session" style.
And when Mr. Matsuev invited the great Russian double-bass player Gregory Kovalevsky to join him and Mr. Rachlin, Mr. Bashmet and the cellist Tatiana Vassilieva for the "Trout," the concert became a grand jam session among friends.
The Levi's branded gig expanded in size -- last year's headliner, R&B sensation Miguel, played the Fonda -- and Snoop, who was using the show to tease his forthcoming disc "Bush," turned his late-night concert into a star-studded jam session.
