San Francisco - Event

A crowning glory of the jazz calendar, the San Francisco Jazz Festival brings international artists to the city's great venues. New commissions, the unique "Jazz on Film" presentations, family matinées and exhibitions all make for a busy jazz jamboree.

Originally a small-scale local community event, the festival now fills the city's principal venues - Herbst Theatre, Davis Symphony Hall, the Palace of Fine Arts and Great American Music Hall to name a few.

The vibrant 2009 programme features musical legends free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Further highlights range from vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Omara Portuondo to guitarists Pat Martino and John Abercrombie and Latin jazz pianists Omar Sosa and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, double-bass luminary Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain, arguably the world's greatest tabla player, make an intriguing collaboration.