Baltimore, MD. (Top40 Charts/ PAETEC Jazz Festival) - PAETEC Jazz Festival Baltimore, (www.paetecjazz.com) presented by Merrill Lynch, has announced more artists in the lineup for the festival's exciting first edition August 9-11, 2007.
R&B-ish pop jazz saxophonist Boney James and special guest Jonathan Butler will play Thursday August 9. The phenomenal mega-hit band Earth Wind and Fire will perform Friday August 10. Both concerts will be held at Pier Six Concert Pavilion. Tickets go on sale Friday May 18 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets and www.ticketmaster.com.
Tickets are already on sale for the Festival's previously announced trio of American music legends - BB King, Etta James and The Roots Band and Al Green. They will perform Saturday August 11, 2007, also at Pier Six Concert Pavilion.
PAETEC Jazz Festival Baltimore will be held against the impressive backdrop of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and downtown area. The diverse program embraces all genres of creative improvised music and features Grammy-winning headliners as well as some of the world's finest emerging artists.
The complete three-day festival lineup and schedule will be announced in early June. Ticketed and free concerts will be held at four venues including Pier Six Concert Pavilion, Power Plant Live!, Bond Street Landing and Harbor East.
Boney James w/special guest Jonathan Butler
Boney James, a solid saxophonist whose style falls on the R&B-ish and pop side of jazz (heavily influenced by Grover Washington, Jr.) is a consistent best-seller who can always be relied upon to put on a colorful live show. His latest album, Shine, hit the No 1 spot on the Contemporary Jazz chart, No 2 on the Jazz Chart and No 6 on the R&B Chart in its first week of release. James is set to take audiences to entirely new places with his ecstatic, evocative playing and velvety grooves.
Jonathan Butler is a gifted singer, two-time Grammy nominated songwriter, guitarist and producer. Born and raised in Cape Town, he spent his youth under the shroud of apartheid. His escape was music. Butler's first single was the first by a black artist played by white radio stations in South Africa and earned a Sarie Award, South Africa's equivalent to the Grammys.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Butler plays at 7 p.m. and James at 9 p.m. Tickets are $30, $40, $50 and $60 plus service charge.
Earth Wind & Fire is simply one of the most important, influential, innovative and commercially omnipotent contemporary pop music bands of the 20th century. Its 35-year history produced millions of albums sold worldwide (including eight double-platinum albums, two platinum albums and three gold albums), five No 1 R&B albums, one No 1 Pop and eight Top 10 Pop albums, and eight No 1 R&B singles.
Earth, Wind & Fire and the founding members have eight Grammy Awards, four American Music Awards, honors from the NAACP and BET, Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. With a catalog of mega-hits spanning three decades, Earth Wind & Fire remains to this day one of the top globally-popular touring attractions. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40, $55, $70 and $85 plus service charges.
