Jazz & Beyond starts with garden party

The summer sizzles as the Mile High Jazz Band Association, Carson City, local businesses, and music lovers proudly present the 2013 “Jazz & Beyond - Carson City Music Festival,” an annual festival that began in August 2004. Performances at multiple venues in Carson City will feature more than 100 musicians in over 50 bands. Music styles include Dixieland jazz, big band, bluegrass, Latin, blues, folk and more. Events are scheduled Aug. 2 to 18, and most are free.

Jazz & Beyond will open with a “Garden Party at the Mansion,” a ticketed event at the Governor’s Mansion at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2. Admission features music by the incomparable vocalist Cami Thompson and her band, finger foods, wine and beer, and a raffle. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door. Tickets are available online at JazzCarsonCity.com, and in Carson City at Play Your Own Music in the Carson Mall and the Purple Avocado on Curry Street.

Outstanding musicians will play for the festival at Third Street, the Farmers Market, Comma Courtyard, Carson Mall, the Brewery Arts Center, the Legislative Plaza and Capitol Amphitheater, Plan: b microlounge, and other locations in Carson City.

Featured big bands are the Reno Jazz Orchestra, Mile High Jazz Band, and RoseBud’s Dance Band. Other groups include Mariachi Cazadores, Tom Stryker’s Two Plus, Buddy Emmer Blues Band, 4 Piece Puzzle, the Champagne Singers and Andrews Sisters Act, Johnny Hamlin Quartet, CeCe Gable and the Biggest Little City Slickers, Cherie and John Shipley, Slow Djinn Fez, Me and Bobby McGee, STRAZZ Youth Strings Jazz Ensemble, and more.

Special events on Saturday, Aug. 3, are Jazz and Wine with Linda and Blue Jasmine at the Carson Mall from noon to 2 p.m.; an Improv Workshop with Laura and Rick Hall at the Brewery Arts Center at noon; live music at three locations during the Wine Walk, 1-5 p.m.; and an Ice-Cream Social with the Millennium Bugs at the Foreman-Roberts House Museum at 6 p.m.

Other events at the Brewery Arts Center are a Piano Summit on Aug. 4; John Shipley’s “History of Rock and Roll” on Aug. 7; a Speakeasy Dance with the Frank n’ Dale Quintet on Aug. 9; Diving Into the Arts Youth Musical on Aug. 9, 10, and 11; and Michael Martin Murphy on Aug. 18.

Festival sponsors include Mile High Jazz Band Association, Carson City Redevelopment Authority, Brewery Arts Center, Nevada Arts Council, Carson City Historical Society, Lake Tahoe Media Group, Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, Nevada Commission on Tourism, and private donors.

For a complete schedule of events, see JazzCarsonCity.com or call Mile High Jazz Band at 775-883-4154.