This family-friendly midday event includes a jazz concert of traditional New Orleans jazz performed by Barnebey’s Hot Four of Sonoma County free to the public accompanying the 13th annual Chowder Challenge tasting competition.

Local chefs & cooks vie for the title of “Best Mendonoma Coast Chowder.” $20 advance tickets, available online ($5 more day of the Challenge), include Festival Logo wine or beer glass and 15 tickets for chowder tastings, hot bread fresh out of the oven and beverages, including fine wines and microbrews as well as soft beverages. Additional tickets will be available for $1 each at the Challenge.

A panel of ‘celebrity’ judges will determine winners in the categories of Traditional (New England Style Clam Chowder) and an Open Class (for all manner of seafood and even vegetarian chowders).

A “People’s Choice” vote of the Chowder & Jazz patrons decides the most popular entry and there is even a cash award for the entrant with the ‘Most Tasted’ chowder!

2015 Chowder Challenge Chefs

Participating professional and amateur chefs include:

• Anchor Bay Store
• Black Oak Catering
• Bones Roadhouse
• Gualala Arts Tuesday Guys
• Gualala Hotel
• George Marshall
• Pier Chowder House & Tap Room
• The Buckhorn (Boonville)
• The Elk Store

We also thank Surf Market for donating the wine for the event, and  KZYX Radio for their sponsorship of the 12th Annual Sonoma – Mendocino Coast Whale & Jazz Festival.

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! Fred Adler from KTDE, 100.5 FM is music coordinator and emcee of the event.

Barnebey’s Hot Four

The Hot Four continue to be the band of choice at the Whale & Jazz Festival’s Chowder & Jazz event, having returned every year since 2006. They had also appeared for many years in Gualala sponsored by Gualala Lions Club with Barnebey’s former Jazz Salvation Co. band. Tom Barnebey has assembled a group of versatile jazz musicians well versed in a good time, swinging, improvisational style: Robert Young on reeds & cornet, Carl Lunsford on banjo & guitar and Marty Eggars on string bass.

The repertoire for the afternoon will include old favorites, the resurrection of some obscure musical gems from the golden age of jazz, and probably a few surprises for the musicians and listeners alike, all in the tradition of the free and easy music of the Big Easy and great for New Orleans traditional dancing!

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.

Chefs

Chowder Challenge entry form: Calling all Chefs!

Deadline is April 1, 2015

Tickets

Tickets are $20 advance; $5 more day of concert (buy your tickets early!).
Children and young people ages 7 through 17 are admitted free with adult.

For advance purchase, visit Brown Paper Tickets. To purchase in person,
visit the Gualala Arts Center or Dolphin Gallery in Gualala.