Panama Jazz Festival: January 11 to 16

  The seventh Panama Jazz Festival will be dedicated to a Panamanian pianist who helped Billi Holiday rise to international fame. Sonny White, born Ellerton Oswald in Panama City in 1917, played with greats such as Sidney Bechet, Jesse Stone, Willie Bryant, Teddy Hill, Frankie Newton and Billie Holliday.

Old timers will remember Sonny’s introduction to Sidney Bechet’s 1940 recording of Sidney’s Blues or his accompaniment of Billie Holiday in “Strange Fruit,” the recording that is often credited with bringing Billie Holiday to international stardom. White passed away in 1971, still playing professionally.

This coming year’s festival will feature pianist Ellis Marsalis, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, bass player John Patitucci, saxophonists Joe Lovano and Carlos Garnet as well as Terry Lyne Carrington and Jamey Haddad on drums.

Like every year the Seventh Annual Panama Jazz Festival will sponsor clinics for aspiring jazz musicians as well as auditions for music scholarships. Over 80 thousand spectators have enjoyed the last six festivals and nearly twenty thousand jazz afficionados are likely to attend the 2010 show. Watch the Events Section for a places, times and dates.

The Panama Jazz Festival was founded and still is managed by Danilo Perez, a Panamanian jazz pianist, who performs and teaches in Boston, Mass.