Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2008, Aug 29-31

It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend in Tanglewood, and the line-up suits every musical taste. On Friday night, opening festivities begin with Colombian harpist, Edmar Castaneda, and his trio featuring vibraphonist, Joe Locke followed by pianist Eliane Elias who will be performing material from her highly acclaimed CD, "Something For You" which is a tribute to Bill Evans.

On Saturday, one of the main highlights is the celebration of Marian McPartland's 90th birthday and her 30th year of her award-winning NPR series: "Piano Jazz." If you can't make it to Tanglewood in person, please turn on your local NPR affiliate which carries "Piano Jazz" at 2pm EST to hear Marian and her special guests: Spencer Day, Nneena Freelon and Mulgrew Miller.

On Saturday evening is the pianist Donal Fox perfoming his "Scarlatti Suite" with special guest Christian Scott (also streaming on JazzCorner.com Innerviews is a special podcast with Donal) and you can preview some of his performances on JazzVision - the only videosharing site for jazz and blues videos. Donal and his group are followed by the incomparable Dianne Reeves.

And on Sunday - wow - a rare East Coast appearance by clarinetist and saxophonist, Eddie Daniels and his quartet. The concert continues with violinist, Mark O'Connor, with special guest vocalist Jane Monheit in a show titled "Hot Swing." Closing the festival on Sunday, August 31, at 8 p.m. will be a Tanglewood exclusive — a very special concert by trumpeter and composer, Terence Blanchard, with a 30-piece orchestra performing the material from this year’s Grammy winning CD, "A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina)."

To purchase tickets to any of the performances as well as a complete schedule, please visit Tanglewood Jazz Festival