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Eighth Annual Redwood Coast Whale & Jazz Festival Chowder & Jazz with traditional New Orleans jazz by Barnebey's Hot Four & More Gualala Arts Center Saturday, April 3, 2010 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

A free concert with traditional New Orleans jazz by Barnebey's Hot Four & More! - back again by popular demand - accompanies the annual Chowder Challenge. $20 includes Festival Logo wine or beer glass and 15 tickets for chowder tastings and/or beverages.

The Festival's first Saturday fun begins with Gualala Arts' eighth annual Chowder Challenge. This event is geared to all ages as local restaurant and amateur chefs vie for the title of "Best Mendonoma Coast Chowder."

Poster   by Hall Kelley 8½"x14"   148 KB pdf

A panel of 'celebrity' judges will determine winners in both professional and amateur classes in the categories of Traditional (New England Clam Chowder) and an Open Class (for all manner of seafood and even vegetarian chowders). A "People's Choice" vote of the patrons decides the most popular entry and there is even a cash award for the "Most Tasted" chowder!

This year the Chowder Challenge "People's Choice" and "Most Tasted" contests end promptly at 1:15 p.m. so the winners in all classes can be announced by 1:30 p.m., to give patrons a chance to sample the winner's chowders before they are all gone!

Professional Chefs

• Julie Davis - (Cook at Pizzas & Cream), Traditional New England Clam Chowder
  
  
• Riley Huddleston - (Chef at Alexander's at Timber Cove), Traditional New England Clam Chowder
  
  
• Phillip M. Kaufman - (Chef at Sea Ranch Lodge), Traditional New England Clam Chowder
  
  
• Mary Wesley - (Chef at The Pier Chowder House), Traditional New England Clam Chowder AND Manhattan Clam Chowder

Amateur Chefs

• George Marshall - past Chowder Challenge "Triple Crown" winner 2008 - with his past winning Traditional New England Clam Chowder
  
  
• Team Susalla, Vegetarian Manhattan Chowder

Chowder Challenge Judges

This year's "Celebrity Judges" are:

• Fred Adler, the Festival Music Coordinator, loves to cook and even considered submitting a chowder in 2009 with Gualala Arts Executive Director, David "Sus" Susalla. Fred's interest in chowder comes from his early days in Connecticut. "The best chowders were made in New England in the '40s and '50s. As a youth, I used to dig for fresh clams at Compo Beach, in Westport Connecticut and make fresh clam chowder with my parents. I still have those chowders on my mind with a lively palate."
  
  
• Laurie Kreger is a long time coastal resident who has been cooking most of her adult life. She has worked in several local restaurants (Sea Ranch Lodge, Old Milano Hotel, St. Orres and The Galley) and now owns her own business "Gotta-Cook" as a private chef. Laurie grows many of her own herbs and vegetables in her coastal garden. She has been a former Chowder Challenge contestant in 2008 - 2009, and won 1st Place in 2008 for the Pro/Open Class.
  
  
• Hall Kelley has designed the printed schedule and large posters for the Whale & Jazz Festival for the past three years and attends as many Festival events as possible. The Chowder & Jazz event is one of his favorites, and he is thrilled to be a judge this year.

4/3/10 Update: 2010 Chowder Challenge Award Winners See photos on

Beverages Featured beverages include microbrews from Festival sponsors North Coast Brewing Company, Mendocino Brewing Company, Lagunitas Brewing Company, and organic ales and lagers from Butte Creek Brewery. Fine wines will be poured by our own Annapolis Winery.

Entry Form: Calling All Chefs!

Winners of past years' Chowder Challenges

The mid-day event includes a jazz concert (free admission for music only), of traditional New Orleans jazz performed by Barnebey's Hot Four of Sonoma County. The Hot Four perform free to the public from 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. during the tastings and is great for New Orleans traditional dancing! Fred Adler from KTDE, 100.5 FM is music coordinator of the event.

$20 admission includes a commemorative Whale & Jazz Festival Logo beer or wine glass, plus 15 tickets that can be used for the chowder tasting and beverages, including fine wines and microbrews as well as soft beverages. Hot bread fresh out of the oven is included in the tastings. Additional tickets are available for $1 each.

Barnebey's Hot Four

This formidable combo consists of Tom Barnebey, cornet and trombone; Scott Anthony, banjo and guitar; Marty Eggers, bass, and Robert Young on reeds and cornet. Barnebey had appeared for many years in Gualala with his former Jazz Salvation Co. band, sponsored by Gualala Lions Club.

Tom Barnebey: Cornet & Trombone

Tom has been in trad jazz since the 1960s, when he began playing banjo and piano in pizza parlors around the Los Angeles area, and cornet with the then newly formed Jelly Roll Jazz Band. After moving to Sonoma County, he led the well regarded Jazz Salvation Company for 20 years. A highlight on the JSC's schedule in last nine of those years was the annual Dixieland by the Sea concert in Gualala. Tom is the currently the cornetist with the Zenith Jazz Band, leads a Roaring Twenties style quintet called "Beyond Salvation Jazz Band," and fills in on various instruments with other trad bands in the Bay Area.

Scott Anthony: Banjo & Guitar

Joining us for this year's Barnebey's Hot Four & More will be banjo and guitar player Scott Anthony. Since 1984 Scott has led and had a wonderful time playing in the Golden Gate Rhythm Machine, as well as Bob Schulz's Frisco Jazz Band, and others. He now makes a living as a musician, a part-time computer programmer and consultant, and builds custom guitars. When there is free time he devotes it to his original avocation as an artist, painting watercolors and acrylics.

Marty Eggers: Bass

Marty is well known on the West Coast as a top-notch ragtime pianist and bassist. Marty's music career began in Sacramento where as a teenager he helped found the Sacramento Ragtime Society in 1982. He has played with numerous San Francisco Bay Area jazz and ragtime groups, most notably John Gill's San Francisco JazzBand and the Black Diamond Jazz Band. His talent and versatility have led him into several varied and prestigious engagements, from recording with traditional jazz legend Bob Helm to touring Germany with Hal Smith's Rhythm Cats to playing in backup bands for both Leon Redbone and Butch Thompson. Marty is also a skilled composer and arranger of ragtime and traditional jazz. Terry Waldo describes Marty as having "..an encyclopedic knowledge of the ragtime and early jazz repertoire ..."

Robert Young: Reeds & Cornet

Prior to his move to Northern California, Robert was bass saxophonist in the legendary Golden Eagle Jazz Band in and worked with various other jazz bands in Southern California. Robert is a multi instrumentalist and a full time musician. His "day job" is piano accompanist for schools, choral groups and theatrical performances. He plays cornet and reeds with the Black Diamond Blue Five and his own group, the El Dorado Syncopators. In the recent past, he has worked with the Zenith Jazz Band, Fourth Street Five, and the San Francisco Starlight Orchestra.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.