Over to you...

Back in the fall, we put out a request for your jazz festival "wish list" - the artists you most wanted to see on a festival mainstage. With the 2012 TD Toronto Jazz Festival now less than a month away, I thought it would be fun to take a quick look at some of the names on the list.

First, here are the artists you requested who are coming this year:

• Esperanza Spalding (June 28 on the mainstage)
• Gretchen Parlato (June 28 on the mainstage)
• Joshua Redman (June 24 on the mainstage with The Bad Plus)
• Kneebody (June 29 at The Rivoli)
• Kurt Rosenwinkel (playing solo, June 22 at Church of the Holy Trinity)
• Roy Hargrove's RH Factor (June 25 on the mainstage)
• Hiromi (June 24 on the mainstage)

As I've mentioned in past blog entries, finalizing the lineup is always a bit of a puzzle: we need to balance out styles, fees, venues and more with artist availability. As a rule, we try to not book artists if they've played in Toronto during the year before (and that includes the previous year's festival...though there are always exceptions). So with that in mind, here's why some of the artists on the list aren't coming this year:

• Avishai Cohen - not available
• Bobby McFerrin - not available
• Branford Marsalis - performed at last year's festival
• Chick Corea - not available
• Chris Potter - not available
• Dee Dee Bridgewater - performed at last year's festival
• Dirty Dozen Brass Band / Rebirth Brass Band - we've got the Soul Rebels Brass Band (June 26 at The Opera House)
• Joni Mitchell - sadly, it seems Joni Mitchell has retired from public performance!
• Jose James - just in Toronto in March
• Kenny Barron - performed at last year's festival
• Kurt Elling - performed at last year's festival
• Matt Wilson - performed at last year's festival
• Ravi Coltrane - just in Toronto in February

And, in case you're interested, here's the full list.

I enjoy discussing the ins and outs of programming the festival, and it was fun to see the artists being suggested by some of our fans. If you've got any questions or comments, feel free to get in touch...otherwise, put on your thinking caps because we'll likely do this again in the fall!

Josh