The Van Williamson Trio will return to Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival. With new members Bob Abbott and Wes Crawford, the trio has performed for 20 years in the Washington, D.C., Annapolis and Delmarva Peninsula regions.
The trio will perform on the following dates and times:
• Thursday, Oct. 13, 6 to 9 p.m. at Dos Locos, 208 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach
• Friday, Oct. 14, 3 to 6 p.m. at Dos Locos
• Friday, Oct. 14, 8 to 11 p.m. at Dos Locos
• Saturday, Oct. 15, 7 to 10 p.m. at Iguana Grill, 52 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach
• Sunday, Oct. 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., brunch at The Back Porch Cafe, 59 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach
The group's repertoire focuses primarily on music from "The Great American Songbook" by composers including Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Vernon Duke, et al, and by jazz greats Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and many others. The group also plays bossa nova music by Brazilian composers like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfa, and contemporary music from stage and screen.
Guitarist Williamson was for many years a producer on NPR's Morning Edition, and the director of the show until retiring in 2012. As an independent radio producer, he created the long-running music-variety program Radio from Downtown at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, Md. As a musician, he has been performing at a wide variety of venues in the area, including the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival (since the event's second year) and the Rehoboth Art League (since 2000). He has worked as a solo guitarist, and in various duos and trios with local bass players and drummers. He has also performed with the Delmarva Big Band, the Queen Anne's Chorale, the Bay Jazz Project, the Joe Baione Trio and other small groups around the region.
Bob Abbott is a freelance bass player and arranger in the Mid Atlantic region. His performance experiences range from local events at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the Mansion at Strathmore, Blues Alley, Rehoboth Jazz Fest, the National Gallery of Art, Rams Head on Stage, and venues in New York City and Richmond, VA. He has also performed at several embassies and political functions in the Baltimore / Washington D.C. area, and has been a featured performer at International Festivals in Croatia. Bob is an endorsed artist for JanAid Basses, GuitarStrap.It, Acme Bass Speakers & Guardian Pro Cables. In addition to Bob's career in performance he is a very successful Choral Director at Crofton Middle School in Anne Arundel County.
After touring for eleven years with award-winning song stylist Jane L. Powell, drummer Wes Crawford settled into the Washington, DC/Baltimore area where he has performed and recorded with a variety of jazz and world music artists such as Shahin & Sepehr, Ron Holloway, Humayun Khan, Van Williamson, Bay Jazz Project, Eva Cassidy, and many others. He teaches privately and at Goucher College, and his original educational music media may be found at musicandgames4u.com. Wes has Artist Relationships with Dream Cymbals, Baltimore Drum Company, Vic Firth, and ProLogix Percussion.