Jazz News—Denver 8th Best City for Music Lovers, WOMAD Festival

The global ticket site SeatPick.com published a ranking of “Best Cities for Music Lovers” in which Denver ranked eighth best, tied with Boston! Ahead of Atlanta, ahead of Detroit!  Let’s drill down into the numbers just a little.

First, the overall leaders beating Denver were London as the best city for music lovers, followed by LA, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Seattle and Austin.

Denver scored really well – seventh best on number of live concerts planned, fourth best on number of music festivals planned, and second best in number of musical instrument stores with 56 – a huge number per capita.

SeatPick.com noted that “Denver is experiencing a boom in its music scene, with a flurry of at least 181 musicians hailing from the city.”

(SOURCE: SeatPick)

Music festivals have become the thing. The best experiences include extensive planning, health and safety accommodations, plentiful food and drink, a few non-musical offerings like galleries, classes, roundtable conversations, or workshops.  Most of all, festival goers want musical options, various stages separated by sound, and all-day lineups with mega-star headliners. I’m talking about the WOMAD – the World’s Festival July 27 through 30 at Charleton Park, in Malmesbury, about 100 miles west of aforementioned London.

A few of the jazz, jazz-adjacent and Latin names on the bill: The Cinematic Orchestra, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchins’ trio called “The Comet is Coming,” R & B-styled King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, breakout tuba star Theon Cross, trailblazers from Peru Los Wembler’s de Iquitos, from New Orleans Cha Wa, The Staples Jr. Singers, Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, Portuguese fado balladeer Mariza, and about 100 other bands.

The WOMAD Festival is on my list!

(SOURCE: WOMAD Festival)

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