By Patte Purcell
17 musicians, vocalists and artists packed the stage at Celebrity Jazz Jam 5 at Desert Willow Golf Resort. This incredible venue overlooks palm trees and the most beautiful golf course you’ve ever seen. It started with a 3 song salute to Prince. Cleer, an incredible vocalist started it off with “Let’s go Crazy” which he nailed, Joe Baldino on guitar, executed the song to perfection. Rick Parma brought it with DMSR one of Princes great dance tunes and John Carey nailed an amazing version of “Purple Rain” on guitar and vocals. He got a standing ovation.
Next up we were treated to a wonderful well performed version of “Summertime” from Keisha D, this lady has chops! Greg Manning (producer, keys) then let loose with his newest single, “Caribbean Breeze” which will definitely be another top 10 hit for him. From there, million selling sax star Greg Vail raised the roof with his two numbers. This guy can blow!
Bob Desena, 24th LA Jazz Artist of the year, mesmerized us with his vibes and flugelhorn and performed two beautiful Latin influenced jazz songs.
The headliner for the evening was top 10 Billboard guitarist Adam Hawley, he toured with Manhattan Transfer and Jennifer Lopez and has some of the top smooth jazz artists on his first CD. His first song “35th Street” is currently #5 and is in its 4th week in the top 10. He showed us exactly why he’s destined to be a superstar.
From there, Slim Man took the stage and performed one of his hits “Sweet Serenade” and grooved to “Rock Me Baby” a blues song that included Greg Vail, Rick Parma, and Victor Robles on saxes. Everyone was into it.
The other headliner was actress, songstress Bobbie Eakes, who is such a pro. She performed “You Should Be Stronger Then Me” and “We’re Still Friends” to the delight of her fans.
Victor Robles performed his new single “Ask For It” and got a standing ovation when he rocked the house.
Joe Baldino introduced one of the new songs from his new CD in production with “Puffy” and the whole crowd jammed to the beat. We heard one more song from ‘Cleer’ a stand out version of “Fly Me to the Moon” with twists and turns that were impressive!
For dessert we were treated to Rick Parma’s “Chocolate Cake” and he had us all calling out for it. What a great song!
The finale with 15 of the 17 artists was “Shake a Tailfeather” and the whole crowd rose to its feet to boogy to the beat. What a blast!
My partner Karl Erikson shot video of the entire event which will be published to ‘Celebrity Jazz Jam Channel’ on you tube.
This was the last outdoor jam for the season, beginning in June (5) we move indoors into the ballroom for a Sunday afternoon jam from noon until 3pm. The next one will be a Latin Jazz Jam. Tickets are at purplepass.com/celebrityjazzjam5
This event was sponsored by Coachella Valley Weekly. The CV Music Awards on Sunday will feature many of the artists that perform in the CJJ series. Come out to watch on Sunday at 4 pm at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs. For tickets call 760-501-6228.
Photos by Marco A Najera
