“A powerhouse guitarist with a sense of rock dynamics – her playing has a fire that is free of self-indulgence.”
-The Chicago Sun-Times

Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues – JazzFest 2010 Thursday performer Shannon Curfman announced her departure from several tour dates, including JazzFest, as she goes on the road with Kid Rock’s band this summer.

Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues welcomes Chicago-based blues diva Joanna Connor as Curfman’s replacement. Connor will play at 6:30pm Thursday, July 15th as part of the added third day to the festival this year.

About Joanna Connor.

Once she stepped off a greyhound bus in Chicago in October of 1984, it took Joanna but a few months to take the city’s highly competitive blues circuit by storm. Chicago Magazine hailed her as “the most exciting new talent on the blues scene.”

Enamored of her mother’s Taj Mahal and Jimi Hendrix albums as a child, Joanna received her first guitar at age seven and sang with various Worcester groups while still in high school. She turned professional in 1981, forming the Pino/Connor Band with guitarist Ken Pino, which performed at various clubs and colleges throughout New England. She was named “Best R&B Vocalist of the Year” by Worcester Magazine .

Jim Gaines, Grammy Award-winning producer of such artists as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, and Steve Miller, was so impressed by Joanna’s talents that he signed on to produce her second release, Fight, also on the Blind Pig label. Playboy Magazine said, “The obvious comparison is Bonnie Raitt, since she’s female and plays blues guitar. I say Connor’s a soprano Johnny Winter. Most blues records miss the passion that made the original stuff compelling. This one reclaims it all.”

“We couldn’t have asked for a better “substitute” for a hardcore blues guitarist than Joanna Connor,” said Executive Director Robert Joyce. “Joanna is a gritty, hardened guitarist and singer that has made a name for herself in one of the most historic cities of the Blues in all of America. Chicago will have to do without Joanna one night as she burns up our stage in Sioux Falls at JazzFest Thursday night.”

2010 Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues – JazzFest dates are July 15, 16, and 17 at Yankton Trail Park.

The 2010 Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues – JazzFest Main Stage schedule is now available.

Headlining this year’s festival are: Marcia Ball on July 15th, Los Lobos on July 16th, and Yellowjackets and Los Lonely Boys on July 17th.

Full schedule:

Thursday, July 15th:

Marcia Ball: 8:30pm

Friday, July 16th:

Davina & The Vagabonds 6pm

Trombone Shorty 8pm

Los Lobos 9:30pm

Saturday, July 17th:

Johnson-McKinney Quintet 12pm

Short Fuse 1:30pm

Dotsero 3pm

Homemade Jamz’ Blues Band 4:30pm

Yellowjackets 6pm

Los Lonely Boys 8pm

Corey Stevens 10pm

Times are approximate and subject to change. For more information, click here.

Listen to the story from NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday here.

Growing up in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, a very young Troy Andrews quickly learned the trumpet and trombone. He’s been playing since he was 4.

When Andrews was a kid, his horn was taller than he was, so his big brother James Andrews started calling him “Trombone Shorty.” The nickname stuck, as has Trombone Shorty’s fierce loyalty to the neighborhood where he grew up hearing big brass sounds from homes, churches and the streets.

At age 24, music has already brought him around the world. But he’s playing with his “supafunkrock” band, Orleans Avenue, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on May 2. And he has a new album out called Backatown.

Andrews says there was never any doubt that he would become a musician.

“As soon as I was born, my mom said I was humming ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ or something like that, you know?” he says. “It’s in the family. And in that neighborhood, I think everybody in the neighborhood has some type of musical influence, even if they don’t play instruments or anything. It’s the way they talk to you, the way they say your name — it’s all musical.”

Trombone Shorty spoke to host Liane Hansen about his new album, his musical development and his small part in the HBO series Treme.