These are some pics of the presentation of cheques of $4500 to the Academia Internacional and the Escuela Buen Pastor in Boquete. The donation was made possible by the great success of the 2013 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival and their Music for Schools program. We're thanking everybody who contributed to this success: Sponsors, the festival audience and our great group of volunteers who made all this possible!

The schools' responses:

More Music Matters…
Colegio Bilingüe El Buen Pastor & Big Daddy's Grill, Boquete, send out an enormous Thank You to Hans Lebuser, to the Board & to all the Volunteers of the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival Foundation for the gift of $2,750 for the purchase of instruments for El Buen Pastor school's music band.
This gift is beyond anything the school ever imagined  and  extends to the entire community via music education and the school's involvement in bringing classical music concerts to Boquete. Thank You Hans and all the board and volunteers at JAZZ & BLUES FEST
Did you know? 
The Jazz & Blues folks also donated 50 Brand New Hohner Harmonicas to Boquete’s community children and, during  the event, offered the kids a class by two delighted professional musicians.
Having a real music band at El Buen Pastor brings music education and classical music to the entire community via the parades and also through the Woodwind and String Concerts, (which were coordinated by Profesor Eduin and sponsored heavily by the school and many others, including local restaurants, retailers and through fairly priced ticket sales.)
The Jazz Folk's generous gift was then piggy-backed with a mini-grant from Bid4Boquete, mentioned in a separate posting.
How's that for hopping on the Love Train?
This thanks is sent with heartfelt gratitude from,  Profesora Abdialy de Alvarado, Directota;  Profesor Eduin Montenegro;  Licenciada Nerchet Santamarìa  - Administradora; The Slagle Family, big and small, at Big Daddy’s Grill.
Did you know? 
Many are unaware that private schools are known to offer a good portion of  scholarships – at times some have had close to 50% of students on full or parcial  scholarship!  Many of these are shouldered by the schools themselves, in addition to having  private sponsors.  Despite the  “private” status, these schools are not chock full of the privileged, but rather full of committed  parents who sometimes struggle to pay the monthly tuition in order to provide a “step up” for their children.  Two schools now have musical bands that have been enhanced by donations from the Boquete Jazz & Blues Fest.  Big Daddy's Grill believes music matters, and we, and  the schools,  are overjoyed.
Boquete, Panama May 7, 2013


Academia Internacional Boquete
April 30, 2013
 
Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival Foundation
 
On behalf of the students, parents and faculty of Academia Internacional Boquete, thank you for your generous donation to our music program. We appreciate your collaboration and interest in the cultural and social development of our students. With your donation, we are able to provide instruments for our band. Attached are photos of the students with their new instruments.
 
We look forward to your continued involvement and wish you continued success. Once again, thank you for all that you have contributed to AIB.
 
Best Regards,
Academia Internacional Boquete
 
Saludos cordiales,
Academia Internacional Boquete
Tel: 720-2821 / Fax :720-2283
mail: aib@aib.edu.pa
http://www.aib.edu.pa

We just added a John Hampton video of Rigoberto Coba's Big Band performing at BJBF 2013 with special guests Steven Engler (voc) and Alan Kaufman (kb). This is the last piece in John Hampton's series of BJBF2013 videos. You can see the complete footage of the festival (videos and photos) on the photo/video page of this website by clicking here.

The Randy Oxford Band at BJBF 2013 with Randy Oxford tb., Jada Amy voc., Randy Norris gt., Farkhod Dosumov b., LA Smith perc., Richard Sabol dr., Another great video by John  Hampton, Not Sereyous Productions.

More fond memories of the 2013 festival: Maria Rivas & her Libertango band from Venezuela. Another video by John Hampton. Enjoy!

The 2013 Boquete Jazz&Blues festival was a great success again! Great music, fantastic shows, a larger audience than last year, good weather.....and the icing on the cake: It was also a financial success! We came out with $7,500 in the black, and we'll give $4500 of that to two schools in Boquete to help them improve the musical education!
Please check out photos and videos of the 2013 event on the 2013 festival page of this website! To give you a little taste of it here's a video of the opening show on Saturday, March 2 with the Boquete Blues Band B3 and Yella (voc) and special guest Andy Egert from Switzerland, followed by Ron Hacker&The Hacksaws from San Francisco. Enjoy!

Our brandnew February 2013 newsletter has just been published! Check it out here!

Only 3 weeks to go to the 2013 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival. Bands are getting ready to travel, flights have been booked, lodging & food is assured, our great volunteers are preparing for their jobs....all systems are GO! Ticket sales are still very slow but that's normal here...usually sales are picking up dramatically in the last weeks before the big event. Here we go Boquete&the rest of the world: Get ready for another great festival!

All you jazzin' and bluesin' babies out there: Rejoice! The Panamonte Brands rum has finally arrived! Panamonte Brands LLC who are based in Florida, USA are the principal sponsor of the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival with a huge donation of 120 bottles of Panama Red 108 overproof, and 40 bottles of Panamonte XXV Reserva Preciosa which are made in Panama but are only available for sale in the US and Canada. The Panama Red 108 overproof sells for $25 a bottle there, and the Panamonte Reserva Preciosa sells for $400 a bottle!
Now it's available in Panama for the first time!!!
It took a long time to get the customs import clearance but it finally arrived in Boquete today! We are now going to distribute it to all our sponsors who signed up for our 100+ program as well as to the bronze, silver and gold sponsors who have been eagerly waiting for the delivery of this delicious benefit! We'll raffle some of the bottles off at our fundraiser parties as well as during the festival.
Now, let's paint the town RED!

The 2013 festival program has been published! You can now download it here: